Friday Brief – (10/05/2024) W19
Good afternoon and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief! What amazing weather we are having! Let’s all cross our fingers that this sunshine is here to stay!
Firstly, a reminder that our Spring Economic Update event takes place next Thursday, 16th May, at the premises of Vision Engineering Ltd, near Woking. You can get all the details and register for the event in the story below.
SolidCAM UK states that it validated its admission of being one of the most powerful CAM systems in the world at their stand at the ultimate showcase event; MACH 2024! The company welcomed hundreds of driven and awe-struck engineers from across the country, who were impressed with the superiority of the UK based company’s latest technological advancements and dedicated training, post processor, support and consultancy service promises. Check out the full press release in the story.
With workplace stress on the rise and absenteeism at over 76% now is the time to take back control of your business. So, get all the information you need to protect your employees and create a stress-free workplace with our Associate Member Citation’s free beginner’s guide to stress risk assessments. Find all the details in the story below.
The Office for National Statistics published the output data for March and with it the initial estimate of GDP for the 1st quarter. The news of growth in this period, which meant that the UK’s recession had formerly ended, grabbed all the economic headlines but we take a look at some of the details in our economic news article this week.
In particular, the manufacturing output figures were generally positive with strong quarter-on-quarter growth both overall and for the capital goods industries. However, there are a couple of notes of caution which we highlight in our article; they may turn out to be a blip, perhaps due to slight changes in the seasonal pattern or they could be harbingers of a turning point.
The other economic news this week was the decision by the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to keep interest rates unchanged. This was largely as expected and the minutes of the meeting also confirmed that the expectation is very much that the next move will be downwards, with the big question being when this will occur. The next meeting of the MPC is towards the end of June when they will have the April and May inflation data. At the moment the sentiment is roughly 50:50 as to whether the change will come at this meeting or be delayed until either August or September; service sector inflation, which is heavily influenced by wage increases, is likely to be the crucial piece of data.
Finally, the April edition of the MTA Business Survey is still open for you input – and thanks to those who have already responded. You can find the secure online form at www.mta.org.uk/mta-business-survey-apr24 and we hope that you can spare a couple of minutes to let us have your feedback.
That concludes the Friday Brief for this week! We hope you all have a wonderful weekend and we look forward to bringing you more great stories next week!
ECONOMIC NEWS – UK
UK Manufacturing Output, March and 1st Quarter 2024: The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has just published the output data for March and, therefore, the 1st quarter of 2024. We will focus mainly on the quarterly data but it is worth noting that manufacturing output increased by +0.3% compared to February but with rises in […]
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MTA Spring Economic Update
Our Spring Economic Update follows on from our Autumn Forecast Seminar and will feature presentations from Oxford Economic and the MTA. This year we are hosting the event at Vision Engineering, Woking. As in previous years, this will feature presentations from Andy Goodwin, Chief UK Economist at Oxford Economics who will cover the macro picture […]
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Citation: Free stress risk assessment guide
Spotting stress in the workplace can be hard especially with how overwhelming day to day business life can be. But with workplace stress on the rise and absenteeism at over 76% now is the time to take back control of your business. So, get all the information you need to protect your employees and create […]
Read more
SolidCAM Press Release
Ticking to Perfection at MACH 2024; Demonstrating where the Time-Honoured Skills of Traditional Clock-making meet Modern Technology! SolidCAM UK states that it validated its admission of being one of the most powerful CAM systems in the world at their stand at the ultimate showcase event; MACH 2024! The company welcomed hundreds of driven and awe-struck […]
Read more