Is a recession inevitable as inflation hammers the UK?

This is Money Podcast

This is Money

Business News, Business, Investing, News

4.1 • 650 Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2022

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Inflation continues to surge, the Bank of England says there is little it can do to stall it but is raising rates any way, and at the same time is warning of a potential recession looming.

It seems safe to say this isn’t the Covid recovery year that many people were hoping for: the longed-for bout of calm and optimism has turned out to be a cost of living crisis instead.

So, with inflation now at 9 per cent and set to rise further and central banks swiftly changing their tune on low interest rates, is a recession inevitable?

On this week’s podcast, Georgie Frost, Helen Crane and Simon Lambert take a look at what is driving inflation, whether there is anything the Bank of England can do, if it should have acted sooner and whether we can hope for a nice surprise with inflationary pressure subsiding quicker than expected.

The new proposal for a four times a year energy price cap change rather than one every six months is also on the agenda, along with the sting in the tail that some say means energy firms will be much less likely to offer cheap fixes once prices start falling.

But in one part of the energy market prices are falling already. The cost of gas in Britain has plummeted recently, Simon explains how that has happened and why we can’t take advantage to lower our energy bills now.

And finally, Crane on the Case continues to rack up consumer victory after consumer victory, Helen fills us in on her latest cases and what readers are flocking for help on.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to This Is Money Podcast. I'm Georgie Frost and joining me and editor Simon Lambert today is Assistant Editor Helen Crane.
0:10.0	And coming up, the unrelenting march towards recession. Is it really inevitable? And if so, how bad are we talking here?
0:17.0	Off Gem have made a stab at sorting out the energy market mess. Is there actually anything good in there?
0:22.5	Meanwhile, Britain has a gas surplus and tumbling wholesale price, so why aren't our bills falling too?
0:28.2	And Crane is back on the case to help a reader whose dream holiday was cancelled.
0:32.7	Don't forget, you can start to date with all the latest breaking money news, just go to this ismoney.com. or download the app.
0:39.6	Market updates and conversations around the financial world don't have to be boring.
0:43.9	The Digest and Invest Podcast by Eatoro is a great way to tune into what's happening in a fun
0:48.6	and easily digestible format.
0:50.9	Discover the Digest and Invest podcast at Eutoro.com forward slash academy forward slash
0:55.5	podcasts. But first, unemployment is falling, wages are growing. So is all the gloom and doom of late,
1:02.9	just a little bit overblown? Alas, no. Experts warm, this fresh data is obscuring a rather
1:09.4	worrying outlook for the British economy.
1:11.7	The reality is that fewer people are in work than before the pandemic and costs arising much faster than pay.
1:17.4	CBI inflation jumped this week from 7 to 9%, and no one thinks it's going to stop there.
1:22.5	While the British economy is recovering pretty well from last year's pandemic induced recession. The picture doesn't look
1:27.7	that rosy. So is a recession inevitable? Welcome, Simon. Welcome Helen. Simon. Dig a little bit more
1:35.3	into the O&S figures for me. Lift the bonnet. What did it reveal? It reveals something which
1:40.7	will come as a shock to nobody. Energy prices are going up a lot. In fact,
1:46.4	they have gone up a lot. They went up a lot in April. Price cap rose 54%. There are more and
1:51.8	more people going on to the energy price cap as fixed rate deals end and they discover that there
1:56.7	is almost no point in trying to switch because the fixed rate deals, they'd be offered a way
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from This is Money, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of This is Money and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.