- Jump in savings bodes well for UK rebound in H2
- Musk accelerates satellite plans
- Lorry driver shortage not yet hitting retailers
British savings rate jumps
Brits boosted their savings considerably while locked down in the early months of this year, which should prove good news for business as restrictions continue to ease. According to the Office for National Statistics, the UK savings ratio, which measures the income households saved as a proportion of disposable income, rose to 19.9 per cent in the first quarter of this year, from 16.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2020.
ONS data also published today showed that the UK economy shrank slightly more than previously thought in the first three months of the year, with GDP contracting by 1.6 per cent. The ONS had previously estimated a 1.5 per cent decline, but household spending was weaker than first estimated. MM
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Musk touts grand plans for SpaceX’s internet service
Elon Musk says his private rocket company SpaceX’s satellite internet network Starlink recently passed near 70,000 active users, and aims to have 500,000 users within 12 months.
Speaking from California in a video interview for the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the maverick entrepreneur said the company was prepared to spend $30bn on Starlink, multiples higher than previous forecasts.
Starlink currently has 1,500 satellites in low orbit providing broadband internet that fills geographic gaps between areas covered by ground-based fibre connections and 5G, Musk said. At full capacity, the service will have 12,000 satellites - designed to provide internet for the hardest to reach 3 to 5 per cent of the world.
Despite strong demand for Starlink services and promising early reviews, the experimental satellite-internet business is not out of the woods financially. Musk said the user terminals that Starlink customers need to access the network cost SpaceX $1,000 to build, but the company is selling them for $500. Musk said the company is in the process of developing terminals that cost less to build. MM
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Paris rolls red carpet to JP Morgan
French President Emmanuel Macron inaugurated JPMorgan's (US:JPM) new trading hub in Paris on Tuesday, as France pitches for more banking jobs and tries to lure finance workers looking to leave London after Brexit.
JP Morgan is set to employ 800 people in Paris by 2022, according to Reuters. Of those jobs, some 265 already worked in France before Britain's European Union exit, and 440 trading and sales staff will join by year-end, with some staff relocating from London. But while Paris attempts to draw business from the UK, JP Morgan still employs some 10,000 people in London alone.
New Financial think tank reported in May that Paris has attracted 102 of 440 firms from Britain that opened units in the European Union over the past five years, second only to Dublin's 135. MM
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