In your catch-up this week, we look at rising fuel prices, outlet closures for M&S and Carluccios, and GDPR. Mark Carney is to announce UK GDP figures this morning and has already revealed the cost of Brexit on UK households. In other news, Sony is to buy EMI Music Publishing and become the biggest news publisher worldwide.
- As oil prices continue to rise, the prices of petrol and diesel are at their highest for three and a half years. This could threaten inflation just as wages have started growing faster than prices. However, economists expect oil prices to fall by the end of 2019 whereas wages should continue to rise.
- Both M&S and Carluccios have announced outlet closures. M&S plans to close around 100 stores by 2022 which translates to one in three of its clothing and home branches. Carluccio’s also plans to close around a third of its restaurants.
- You will undoubtedly have received a flurry of emails over the past few months regarding privacy policies. This has increased to a flood over the last week as the GDPR deadline is finally upon us. The General Data Protection Regulation will give citizens in the EU more rights over how companies and associations use their personal information.
- The Bank of England’s governor, Mark Carney, has said that the Brexit vote has cost each household in the UK £900. He said: “Real household incomes are £900 per household lower than we forecast in May of 2016”. He also said that the economy was 2% smaller than forecast before the referendum in 2016.
- Sony is to become the world’s biggest music publisher after buying EMI Music Publishing for $2.3 bn. The deal will expand Sony’s catalogue to more than 4 million songs, including compositions from Queen, Kanye West and Drake.
