Last year I got a call from someone at DWP. The call went roughly as follows:
DWP: We’ve got a story for you. Figures show that the benefit cap is working and it hasn’t even been brought in yet.
Me: Really? How do they do that?
DWP: Well the number of people who have come off benefits since we announced the policy is XXX thousand. [I forget the actual number the person used.]
This week may signal a new phase in the eurozone’s continued battle for economic recovery.
Tuesday’s unemployment data will set the tone for Thursday’s European Central Bank interest rate announcement. With unemployment at a record high of 12 per cent, commentators see no early signs of any improvement. Read more
The butterfly effect: Chinese dorms and Bangladeshi factory fires
New dormitories for Chinese workers may appear to have little to do with the deaths of hundreds of textile workers in Bangladesh. But in today’s globally interconnected economy one may be the fabled butterfly to the other’s subsequent hurricane.
Chinese workers’ demands for better conditions and higher pay have been driving manufacturers to seek cheaper alternatives. That has brought many textile firms to Bangladesh, which is reputed to have the lowest textile industry wages in the world – and they have certainly been increasing much more slowly than those in China. Read more
Has Britain escaped a triple-dip recession? We just don’t know.
Today’s preliminary data on economic growth in the first quarter of 2013 must have triggered a sigh of relief in Downing Street, showing as they do a slight – very slight – increase in GDP and thus bucking predictions that the country was sliding into an ignominious triple dip recession.
But the Chancellor shouldn’t feel too relieved; in actuality, we have no idea whether the country grew in the past three months. Read more
A buying frenzy has sent the value of the total Bitcoin stock past $1.5bn and the price of a single Bitcoin has doubled in less than two weeks.’
Financial Times, April 3 Read more
Here’s what’s driving that house price confusion
The UK’s main house price indices have been diverging noticeably in recent years, as this blog pointed out last week. A look at the trends in housing sales helps explain why.
Here are some useful charts from housing data firm Hometrack. Read more
| About this blog | Blog guide |
Kate Allen works in the editorial statistics team in London. She previously specialised in housing data reporting for a national trade magazine.
Chris Cook is the FT's executive comment editor. After joining the FT in 2008 as a Peter Martin Fellow, he worked for two years as a leader writer and then as education correspondent.
Emily Cadman joined the FT in 2010 and is head of the interactive desk.
Martin Stabe works on the FT's interactive team, specialising in databases for interactive graphics.
Keith Fray heads the editorial statistics team, providing data for articles and graphics. His background is in economics, studying at Birkbeck College, London.
Norma Cohen is the FT's Demography Correspondent.
Valentina Romei is a statistical researcher at the FT. She joined the FT in 2008 after working both as an academic and market researcher.
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