DR GERTJAN VLIEGHE MAKES FINAL SPEECH AS A MEMBER OF THE MPC

The Bank of England should not tighten monetary policy until well into next year because the threat of the coronavirus is still weighing on the economy, according to Dr Gertjan Vlieghe, an outgoing member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) (The Times). In the latest of a series of interventions by members of the Bank's MPC in the past fortnight, Dr Vlieghe made it clear that he would be opposing either an increase in interest rates or a scaling back of the quantitative easing programme (The Guardian).

During the same speech, his last as a member of the MPC, Dr Vlieghe also suggested that alternative measures such as raising the age at which workers retire could help the Bank stimulate the economy further as traditional policies have little room left to help (The Daily Telegraph).

SHADOW CHANCELLOR OUTLINES LABOUR?S APPROACH TO THE ECONOMY

Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, has said boosting exports was one of the ?five tests? Labour was setting the government as the economy starts to recover. The five tests will assess whether UK industries were thriving, whether people had greater job security and choice, whether pay was rising and living costs falling, whether growth was being spread more evenly across the country and whether the recovery was sustainable.

During her interview with the Financial Times, setting out the framework for the party's approach to the economy, Ms Reeves committed Labour to working with the EU to fill in ?gaps? in the prime minister's Brexit deal. She also confirmed that Labour was likely to oppose a mooted plan by the prime minister to fund £10 billion in improvements to social care through a one percentage point rise in national insurance contributions.

NEWS IN BRIEF

Tesco Bank has announced it will close all its current accounts by the end of November (Sky News).

Mortgages and debts are the top reasons why people have sought money guidance over the past year, according to new figures released by the government-backed MoneyHelper service (The Independent). 

A search for space has increased the average price of a house by 7.3 per cent over the past year, according to new research from Zoopla (BBC News).

The UK government is considering loosening travel restrictions for travellers from the EU and the US. Ministers are separately looking at removing France from the newly created ?amber plus? category, which requires travellers from the UK to quarantine upon their return (Financial Times).

LATEST BLOGS

Simon Hills, Director, Prudential Policy, UK Finance, discusses the key points from Bank of England's latest consultation paper on minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL).