Yesterday the UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson hinted at the prospect of tax cuts for business next year as he attempts to rebuild the economy and attract investment. Speaking on his ‘People’s PMQs’ session on Facebook, Johnson said: ‘We’ll be looking at the tax environment and the regulatory environment and everything we can do to encourage and support business in this country’. Johnson added that business was the motor that is going to ‘enable us to pay for all the things we need in the future’ and that the success of companies was essential in controlling the deficit.
One person listening intently to the Prime Minister’s comments will have been his Downing Street next door neighbour, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The suggestion of tax cuts coincided with remarks by Mr Sunak yesterday in which the chancellor gave a fresh warning over the UK’s mounting debt pile, which he said had left the country ‘much more sensitive’ to any rise in interest rates. Should make the conversations more interesting over the coming months.
Also, today being the first Friday of the month means it is Non-Farm Payrolls (NFP). The market estimates before the figures were for 475k jobs added, an unemployment rate of 6.7% and participation rate of 61.7% before the figures.
The actual number of jobs added was 245k with the previous month’s figure revised down slightly. The unemployment rate fell to 6.7% versus the prior month’s reading of 6.9% and the participation rate fell to 61.5%.