Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
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- Bitcoin tumbles from record high
- UK travel and hospitality shares rally
- UK jobless rate highest in almost five years
- CIPD: Chancellor should extend furlough scheme
3.58pm GMT
The pound has risen to a fresh near-three-year high against the US dollar.
Sterling has hit $1.411 against the greenback for the first time since April 2018.
The recovery this year is going to be consumer driven, with pent up demand and increased aggregate savings being unleashed as people break free of their homes and enjoy the kinds of experiences that have been kept from them for so long.
3.44pm GMT
Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell is testifying to the Senate Finance Committee now, and maintaining a dovish approach.
He explains that the most important thing for the economy now is the Covid-19 vaccination programme.
“We don’t really see how a burst of fiscal support or spending that doesn’t last for many years would actually change those inflation dynamics”—Fed Chair Jerome Powell on fiscal relief and the persistent low inflation environment
On inflation, Powell tells @SenShelby that spending in the second half of the year could pick up and put some upward pressure on inflation
But that pressure isn’t likely to be large or sustained
Inflation dynamics “do change over time but they don’t change on a dime.”
