Jeremy Hunt Going for More Tax Cut Headlines

The Chancellor is in Washington for the IMF spring meeting and wasting little time in racking up column inches with US correspondents from UK news outfits!

Jeremy Hunt seems to be trialling his messaging for the general election, using such terms as ‘economic soft landing’, ‘turned a corner’ and ‘better times ahead’ when talking about the economy.

As well as talking about what he’s managed to achieve (and the jury is out on whether double digit inflation could be considered a soft landing) he also spoke about wanting to take another two pence off National Insurance ahead of the election but would only do so if it was ‘responsible’ to do so.

Adding to the fiscal responsibility messaging, he also said that he wants to go ‘further and faster’ in bringing down the cost of benefits, saying that the rise in unemployment benefit claims was unsustainable – though his plan seems to be more about reducing the supply of benefits than the demand for them.

The government would have been keen to get as much coverage of Jeremy in the US, lest there be time for Rishi on Rwanda. The bill is now in the ping-pong stages between the Lords and the Commons, with both seemingly refusing to make concessions to appease the other side.

This week marked a year since the latest civil war in Sudan reignited violence across the fragile the Northeast African state.

On the 15 April 2023, violence erupted between two armed factions of the Sudanese government, with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) locked in a violent power struggle ever since.Last April, the RSF attacked state infrastructure under the control of SAF and put pressure on the de facto leader of Sudan, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, to resign. Fighting erupted in the capital Khartoum as well as other urban metropolises like Omdurman with both the SAF and RSF taking control of different areas of the respective cities.With the RSF successfully capturing government building across Khartoum, the RSF and al-Burhan set up a temporary base in Port Sudan to the North East of the country.

The ensuing conflict has seen smaller factions join ether the SAF or RSF.The conflict in Sudan is the latest example of the fragility the country which has seen no less than 15 military coups since its independence from Britain and Egypt in 1956.According to the United Nations since the conflict erupted last April it has “pushed millions to the brink of famine” with the price of basic food items rising 83% given critical infrastructure being destroyed and farmlands being deserted.The fighting in Sudan has led to over six million people being internally displaced and a further two million being externally displaced.

On today’s economic calendar, the data is light but the sentiment is heavy, in that we have speakers from the ECB, the BoE and the Federal Reserve – all of whom will no doubt give some veiled hints that monetary policy cuts are no longer a foregone conclusion, probably with the exception of the ECB that remain keen to differentiate themselves as the central bank who are still up for cuts.