New Jobless Claims in the U.S. Hits Yearly Lows Last Week / The Bank of England Maintains Interest Rates and the Scale of Bond Purchases Unchanged

The number of new jobless claims in the United States continued to fall to 498,000 last week, the lowest in nearly a year. The market originally expected it to be 540,000, a decrease of 92,000 from the previous value. During the period, the number of people applying for unemployment benefits increased by 37,000 to 3.69 million, higher than market expectations. It reflects that the universal vaccination of the Covid-19 vaccine has allowed more states to relax the blockade, and the Biden fiscal stimulus plan has further strengthened the recovery of the power market.

After the interest rate meeting, the Bank of England announced that it would maintain interest rates and the scale of bond purchases of GBP 895 billion. However, the current asset purchase rate of 4.4 billion pounds a week will be slowed to 3.4 billion pounds a week, and the economic growth forecast for this year will be raised from 5% to 7.25%, and the economic forecast for next year will be lowered from 7.25% to 5.75%. The central bank statement pointed out that with the acceleration of the vaccination plan and the relaxation of restrictions on the pandemic, it is expected to boost consumer spending. Therefore, it is expected that the economic recovery in the next few quarters will be greater than originally expected.