CHANCELLOR TO PRIORITISE JOBS IN SUMMER STATEMENT

The Financial Times (£, p1) reports that Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, will prioritise measures to support job creation in his economic statement to the House of Commons next week, and has told Conservative MPs not to expect significant tax cuts. The statement on 8 July will reportedly mark a shift in the government's economic strategy, from the 'support phase? to a stimulus phase, in which it will encourage households and companies to spend as they normally would. In designing stimulus policies, Treasury officials are said to be carefully examining the impact of measures adopted by other European finance ministries.

Although the Treasury intends to phase out the current job retention (furlough) scheme by October, measures being considered to help people return to their jobs, or to find new ones, include a potential  wage subsidy for companies taking on new staff or preserving jobs, and additional support for small businesses taking on apprentices aged under 25. While the Treasury does not appear to be planning significant tax cuts to stimulate the economy, one option reportedly being considered is a targeted, temporary cut to VAT in the tourism and hospitality sector (Evening Standard, online only).

DATA SHOWS SIGNS OF TENTATIVE ECONOMIC RECOVERY

Ahead of restaurants, pubs, and other businesses being allowed to re-open from tomorrow, a range of real-time data suggests the UK economy is beginning to regain momentum. The latest survey by GfK shows that consumer confidence has increased to -27, a small increase after the index fell to its lowest ever level of -36 at the start of June (CityAM, online only).

Meanwhile, Jefferies, which indexes data on public transport use, electricity consumption and flights to measure economic activity, has found that while activity is still only at 52 per cent of its pre-lockdown level, there has been a noticeable increase in the past week (The Times, £, p39). In another tentative sign of recovery, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation's Jobs Recovery Tracker showed that the number of job adverts in the UK rose to 990,000 in the last week of June from 963,000 in the first week (The Times, £, p38).

NEWS IN BRIEF

The FCA has proposed extending its relief measures for consumers with car financing contracts or high-cost credit until the end of October (Reuters, online only).

The Guardian (p10) reports that the government will today announce that, from 10 July, travellers from more than 50 countries, including Spain, Italy, France and Germany, will no longer be required to quarantine for 14 days upon their arrival in England.

The UK High Court has ruled against Venezuela's government in a legal battle over access to $1 billion (£820 million) of gold stored in the Bank of England (BBC News, online only).

The German parliament voted to back the German Central Bank's participation in the ECB's bond-buying programme, after an earlier ruling by Germany's constitutional court that its participation was unlawful (Bloomberg, online only).

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