UK Economy Bounces Back! 
In April, the UK economy showed its resilience amid rising living costs and high interest rates.
The return to growth was fuelled by an upswing in consumer spending and a decrease in strikes. The labour market remained robust thanks to higher-than-anticipated spending, empowering workers to demand higher wages to safeguard their living standards.
With the economy outperforming expectations and no longer facing the prospect of contraction, the Bank of England is expected to continue raising interest rates to hit its 2% inflation target 
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UK inflation took a welcome dip to 6.8%, down from last month’s 7.9%, as reported on Wednesday. This drop is driven by decreased gas and electricity costs after Ofgem’s energy price cap adjustment.
However, core inflation, excluding food and energy, held steady, rising at an annual rate of 6.9% in July. Notably, service prices, including airfares and holiday expenses, surged, contributing to inflation.
The unchanging core rate and growing service inflation put the Bank of England under pressure to uphold its firm monetary policy stance. 
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Some better news on the mortgage front 
Market expectations for interest rates have begun to stabilise which has led to high street banks like HSBC and Nationwide cutting their mortgage rates from today.
And they’re not the only ones – Santander, NatWest, and several more have already shared similar decreases. This is a positive shift after the ups and downs we’ve seen over the past few months.
If you’re looking for a mortgage or already have one, this could be some welcome news for your wallet 
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Weekly Market Update
Positive news from the Bank of England’s latest survey. UK companies are feeling more optimistic about CPI inflation, with expectations of price rises falling to their slowest pace in nearly two years. 
Output prices are projected to increase by 4.4% over the next 12 months, the lowest since November 2021 and significantly down from 5.5% in July. The three-month average also dipped to 4.9% from 5.2%, defying economists’ expectations.
What does this mean for the market? It’s likely to spark discussions about the potential end of interest rate hikes in the near future. Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey recently suggested that interest rates might be “near the top of the cycle,” foreseeing a “marked” drop in inflation for the remainder of the year. 
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Weekly Market Update
The European Central Bank (ECB) has continued on its rate-hiking path, adding another 25 basis points to its benchmark rate. This brings rates to a historic 4%, the highest point since the Euro’s inception in 1999. 
This decision underscores the ECB’s commitment to combat stubbornly high inflation, even in the face of concerns about a potential economic slowdown across the Eurozone. 
Investors monitoring these developments predict that we’re close to the end of the most aggressive rate-hiking cycle in decades. This has largely been driven by inflation, fuelled by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Covid pandemic.
Stay tuned for further insights and analysis.
When investing, your capital is at risk.
