UK Economics

1. A new methodology from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for including rental prices into UK statistics points will be used in official inflation data from March 2024.  The new methodology will increase the number of rental prices used to produce the figures to around 500,000 per year.
2. Data released by mortgage provider Nationwide has revealed that house prices unexpectedly rose again in November, despite economists forecasting a 0.4% fall. This follows a 0.2% rise between October and November and a 0.9% increase the month before.
3. The British public’s expectations for price growth in the year ahead has fallen to the lowest level in two years, to 3.3%, a 0.3% decrease from August earlier this year, according to the Bank of England, signalling lower households wage demand going forward.

World Economics

1. China’s consumer prices fell 0.5% in November. These figures reflect the ails facing the second-largest economy in the world at the moment, such as weak trade and manufacturing data. Xi Jinping has committed to an increase in fiscal and monetary support as the country’s economic recovery is still at its “critical stage”.
2. The US economy employed a further 199,000 people in the month of November, and saw a 0.2% fall in the unemployment rate. Job gains occurred in health care and government, as well as in manufacturing, following the return of workers from a strike.
3. Following an 8 hour meeting in Brussels, finance ministers were unable to agree a deal on reforming EU rules around government debt and deficits. Germany wants stricter limits to spending, while France and Italy are pushing for more freedom. 
4. Federal prosecutors have charged Hunter Biden with 9 federal tax offences, including the evasion of $1.4mn in tax payments. The Department of Justice claimed that he “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills”.
5. EU member states will be allowed to “partially or, where justified, completely limit” access to infrastructure to gas operators from Russia and Belarus “where necessary to protect their essential security interests”, according to draft legislation from Brussels, nearly 2 years after the initial invasion of Ukraine.

UK Politics

1. The UK has allocated a further £100mn this year to relocating the asylum seekers in Rwanda, with the sum total now reaching £240mn. This scheme aims to prevent people from crossing the English Channel in small boats. Rishi Sunak aims to “finish the job” following the resignation of his immigration minister this week.
2. Boris Johnson attended a public inquiry this week to review how his government handled the Covid crisis. He apologised for the “pain and the loss and the suffering” experienced during the pandemic and talked about the gender imbalance at Number 10 Downing Street; “too many meetings were male-dominated”.
3. The Green Party has cut ties with Green Party Women (GPW) due to a dispute over the party’s views on sex and gender. Senior members of GPW claim the group was “disaffiliated” because of their promotion of “gender-critical views”, and a Party spokesperson said it suspended GPW for procedural reasons.

World Politics

1. Taiwan’s Defence Ministry spotted a Chinese surveillance balloon in the Taiwan Strait and a large-scale movement of military aircraft and ships. China’s Defence Ministry offered no comment; Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said, “I’m not aware of the situation”.
2. Bulgaria’s parliament approved the provision of additional military aid to Ukraine. A majority of 147 lawmakers in the 240-seat chamber voted in favour of supplying Ukraine with various missiles to improve its air defence capabilities. Military experts say that the missiles cannot be repaired in Bulgaria, but Ukraine has the facilities to fix them or use them for spare parts. 
3. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni announced a five-year deal in which Albania agreed to temporarily shelter up to 36,000 migrants a year, while Rome fast-tracks their requests for asylum in Italy. 
4. Former Mauritanian President, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, was sentenced to five years in prison for money laundering and self-enrichment, according to his attorneys. Defence lawyer Taleb Kharkiv’s stated that “This is a political verdict whose ultimate objective is to deprive the president of civic rights”.
5. Elon Musk, shared a video in which Argentina’s President Javier Milei says equality should never come before freedom.This isn’t the first time Musk has showed support for Milei, writing “prosperity is about to come to Argentina”, when Milei won the election on 19 November.

Written by Elliot Hanssens