This week's focus on UK and Chancellor Philip Hammond’s latest Budget - UOB

In the UK, the focus this week was on the Chancellor Philip Hammond’s latest Budget. 

Key Quotes:

"Official forecasts for the UK’s economic growth were cut sharply for the next five years because of weaker productivity growth, leaving the chancellor with much less room to offset any shock from leaving the EU. Cyclically adjusted PSNB was revised down to 2.4% of GDP in this fiscal year (it was 3% of GDP in March), but revised higher to 1.3% of GDP by 2020/21 (it was 0.8% of GDP in March). 

As a result, overall borrowing is now projected to be GBP30bn higher over the course of the forecast. The focus was on housing policy, where Hammond committed to a target of building 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s, and set aside an additional GBP15bn for residential investment. As expected he also cut the stamp duty to first-time buyers (abolished on homes worth less than GBP300k)."