British house price rises picked up speed last month and households recovered some confidence, which had plunged after June’s Brexit vote, according to surveys that added to signs of calm among consumers after the unexpected referendum result.
However, the increase in house prices was largely driven by a shortage of homes on the market and the outlook depended on longer-term impact on the economy of the vote to leave the EU, mortgage lender Nationwide Building Society said.
Prices rose 5.6 percent compared with the same month last year, faster than July’s 5.2 percent. Economists polled by Reuters had expected house prices to rise 4.8 percent.
In monthly terms, house prices rose 0.6 percent, from an increase of 0.5 percent in July.
“The pickup in price growth is somewhat at odds with signs that housing market activity has slowed in recent months,” Nationwide economist Robert Gardner said.
The Bank of England on Tuesday said that mortgage approvals in July fell to their lowest level since January last year.
Gardner also said demand for housing had fallen, hit by the introduction in April of a new tax on homes bought by landlords, but the drop appeared to have been matched by weak numbers of homes being put up for sale.
“What happens next on the demand side will be determined, to a large extent, by the outlook for the labor market and confidence amongst prospective buyers,” he said.
A survey published earlier yesterday showed consumer morale last month recovered some of its post-Brexit slump.
Market research firm GfK said its gauge of consumer confidence rose to minus-7 last month from minus-12 in July, when it suffered its sharpest drop in more than 26 years.
However, last month’s level was still the second-lowest since early 2014.
The improvement was in keeping with recent data suggesting consumers have remained resilient after the referendum, even though there have been some indications that they are more reluctant to make big purchases than before the vote.
“While material uncertainty remains, the modest rise in confidence suggests that households do not expect a worst-case scenario,” Barclays economists said in a note to clients. “That said, lower confidence with respect to before the vote remains broadly consistent with our macro scenario of consumer spending slowing materially, but gradually next year.”
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
NATIONAL SECURITY: Intel’s testing of ACM tools despite US government control ‘highlights egregious gaps in US technology protection policies,’ a former official said Chipmaker Intel Corp has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Intel, which fended off calls for its CEO’s resignation from US President Donald Trump in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research Inc, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment. Two of ACM’s units, based in Shanghai and South Korea, were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving US technology over claims they have
Taiwan’s exports soared 56 percent year-on-year to an all-time high of US$64.05 billion last month, propelled by surging global demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing and cloud service infrastructure, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) called the figure an unexpected upside surprise, citing a wave of technology orders from overseas customers alongside the usual year-end shopping season for technology products. Growth is likely to remain strong this month, she said, projecting a 40 percent to 45 percent expansion on an annual basis. The outperformance could prompt the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and
BARRIERS: Gudeng’s chairman said it was unlikely that the US could replicate Taiwan’s science parks in Arizona, given its strict immigration policies and cultural differences Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登), which supplies wafer pods to the world’s major semiconductor firms, yesterday said it is in no rush to set up production in the US due to high costs. The company supplies its customers through a warehouse in Arizona jointly operated by TSS Holdings Ltd (德鑫控股), a joint holding of Gudeng and 17 Taiwanese firms in the semiconductor supply chain, including specialty plastic compounds producer Nytex Composites Co (耐特) and automated material handling system supplier Symtek Automation Asia Co (迅得). While the company has long been exploring the feasibility of setting up production in the US to address
RSS