It was an extremely quiet day for UK economic data yesterday, as talks of a possible trade war dominated the headlines (and the markets). However, we did see the Halifax house prices which came in above forecast. They went up by 1.8% year-on-year in the three months to February against an expectation of 0.6%.
Although the figure still represents a pretty weak pace of growth, it is thought that the low mortgage rate environment and a shortage of properties for sale will continue to support prices for at least the next few months.
In other news, the Chancellor Philip Hammond issued a warning to the EU that a ‘fair and balanced’ deal must include financial services. Speaking in Canary Wharf at HSBC’s headquarters, he said that the government could reject any Brexit trade deal not including financial services. We will have to wait and see if the EU takes the unprecedented step of bowing to our demands rather than the other way round.