Commercial news round-up: Brexit, bitcoin, Xmas sales, Apple, car sales
updated on 11 January 2018
Sadiq Khan has kicked off Thursday with predictions that centre on a “lost decade” of lower employment and reduced investment that would result from a hard Brexit. Specifically, a study commissioned by the mayor estimates the loss of half a million UK jobs and nearly £50 billion in investment by 2030. He has called on the government to stop mishandling the negotiations: “The analysis concludes that the harder the Brexit we end up with, the bigger the potential impact on jobs, growth and living standards.” For more big business news, try these on for size:
- South Korea has announced that it is to ban the trading of bitcoin, as part of a wider crackdown on tax evasion. This will be a blow to the cryptocurrency, as South Korea is one of the largest economies in the world, and comes in the wake of Warren Buffet’s prediction that bitcoin “will come to a bad ending”.
- The Guardian provides a useful round up of the high-street retailers that will be feeling full of Christmas cheer and those who will be more Scrooge-like, with details of December 2017 sales figures revealed. Purely on the food front, Aldi and Lidl were the big winners, each enjoying a nearly 17% rise in sales for the three months leading up to Christmas.
- Apple has been forced to pay an extra £136 million in tax following an HMRC investigation of its tax arrangements.
- For the first time in six years, there has been a drop in new car sales in the United Kingdom, with a notable decline in diesel sales. This is in part a reflection of the concern around emissions (both actual and the associated industry scandal) and a broader reflection of the nation’s economic concerns.
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