UK Economics

1. On 6 March the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt delivered his Spring Budget for 2024. The Labour party described it as a shameless bid for Tory re-election and a “con”, claiming that it would leave many people worse off.
2. The main rate of National Insurance will be cut by 2p from 10% – 8% with effect from 6 April 2024. This is in addition to the 2p cut announced in the Autumn 2023 statement which took effect on 6 January 2024.
3. The ‘Non-Dom’ (Non-Domicile) tax rules are to be replaced with a residence based regime. In the new administration, regardless of their domicile status, all those who have maintained tax residency in the UK for more than four years will be subjected to UK taxation on their foreign incomes and profits. For newcomers, there will be a four-year exemption, provided they have been non-tax residents for the previous ten years.
4. The government will raise the threshold for the High Income Child Benefit Charge from £50,000 to £60,000 from 6 April 2024, and there will be a tapered charge between £60,000 and £80,000.
5. The government will introduce a levy on vapes starting 1 October 2026, with an excise of £1.00 for liquids without nicotine, £2.00 for liquids with low nicotine, and £3.00 for liquids with strong nicotine. There will also be a one-time rise in tobacco duties of £2.00 for every 100 cigarettes or 50 kilos of tobacco.

World Economics

1. At the National People’s Congress last week, Chinese Premier Li Qiang announced an ambitious new 5% annual growth target, alongside RMB 1tn in special long-term government bonds to boost defence spending and fund “major national strategies”.
2. On 6 March the Egyptian government negotiated an expanded $8bn loan deal with the IMF, after agreeing to devalue the Egyptian Pound, cut government spending and boost private sector investment. The deal comes after years of President Sisi’s extravagant spending on projects such Egypt’s New Administrative Capital.
3. On Tuesday the US Bureau of Labor Statistics will publish its latest inflation figures. Headline inflation is expected to remain at 3.1%, but core inflation – which strips out volatile goods such as food and energy – is expected to fall from 3.9% to 3.7%.
4. Despite this, strong economic growth in the final quarter of 2023 has lead most analysts to conclude that the Fed will not cut interest rates from their present high of 5.5% until the Summer. Economists polled by Bloomberg predict that the US will experience 2% GDP growth over 2024.

UK Politics

1. On 26 February MP Lee Anderson was suspended from the Conservative Party after claiming that London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer are “controlled by Islamists”.
2. Pro-Palestinian firebrand George Galloway won the Rochdale by-election on 29 February. His victory came after the Labour Party suspended their candidate, Azhar Ali, for suggesting that Israel “allowed” Hamas to execute its deadly attack on 7 October 2023.
3. On Friday former Prime Minister Theresa May announced that she will leave Parliament at the next election. She stated that stepping down would allow her to focus on “causes close to my heart” such as her campaign against modern slavery.
4. A new report released over the weekend suggests that the Army’s top IRA mole during the Troubles, agent Stakeknife, cost more lives than he saved. The report criticised the army’s methods of recruiting and handling agents, claiming that the security services had failed to prevent several murders in order to protect the identities of their agents.

World Politics

1. US President Joe Biden gave the annual State of the Union address on Thursday. Mr Biden urged Congress to increase their support for Ukraine, opening his address by stating that “this is no ordinary moment.” The President also addressed a range of domestic issues as he highlighted reproductive rights and the crisis on the American southern border.
2. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has said that a maritime corridor to Gaza could open within a few days. This comes after President Biden announced plans to build a floating pier to Gaza’s shoreline. The Pentagon has estimated that this will take around two months to build.
3. Voters in Ireland have overwhelmingly voted against a proposal which sought to alter wording in the constitution to include families not based on marriage. A second proposal regarding the wording of the role of women in households was also resoundingly defeated with 73.9% of voters rejecting it.
4. On 4 March, France became the first country to make abortion a constitutional right. Parliamentarians voted (780-72) to enshrine the “guaranteed freedom” to abort, a move which President Macron described as emblematic of “French pride.”
5. Nikki Haley dropped out of the American presidential race on 6 March following a string of poor results on Super Tuesday. Haley, who hitherto had won just two Republican primaries, did not endorse presumptive Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump. 

Written by Edgar Brown, Keshav Hajarnavis and Shreyas Veturi