Valentine Love was in the air last week, along with soaring US retail chocolate prices, which have risen 11% in the past year. Manufacturers say poor weather and disease are affecting cocoa crop yields in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, where 60% of the world’s production is based.
Let’s look at some country updates.
The UK’s fallen into a shallow recession as Q4 growth figures of -0.3% confirmed two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt said the figure was “not a surprise…while interest rates are high.” Nevertheless, economists predict good news around the corner. Falling inflation is putting more money in the pockets of UK consumers, leading to a 3.4% rise in retail sales volumes in January 2024, marking the largest monthly increase since April 2021.
TEAM plc (LON:TEAM) is building a new wealth, asset management and complementary financial services group. With a focus on the UK, Crown Dependencies and International Finance Centres, the strategy is to build local businesses of scale around TEAM’s core skill of providing investment management services.
