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The Bank of England was on hold today, as largely expected, and the MPC unanimously voted to keep policies unchanged.

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For all the resounding announcements, catchy slogans and jokes, today’s Budget amounted to little in practical terms. Chancellor Philip Hammond announced “a Budget for Britain’s future” and reiterated that, after almost a decade of spending cuts, fiscal austerity was “coming to an end”, as also suggested by the Prime Minister during the Tory party conference early this month. Alas, it is not happening now, it is only vaguely defined in practical terms, and it is conditional on a good Brexit deal.

The trade tariffs – and corresponding retaliatory measures – implemented are so far limited. In total, the value of affected trade now amounts to about $150bn globally, or 0.8% of overall world exports. However, adding up all the measures currently under discussion and assuming impacted countries retaliate commensurately, the amount of targeted trade could quickly rise to more than $1tn, or 6% of global exports. In her latest Ahead of the Curve, Silvia Dall’Angelo, Senior Economist at Hermes Investment Management, argues an escalation of protectionist measures evolving into a trade war could represent the biggest challenge to the world economy.