the FATF has made “the initial determination that Mauritius has substantially completed its Action Plan and warrants an on-site assessment to verify that the implementation of Mauritius’s AML/CFT reforms has begun and is being sustained, and that the necessary political commitment remains in place to sustain implementation in the future.”

The US dollar continued to fall from its peak at the end of March. This falling dollar is part of the rising inflation trend that is unlikely to end any time soon. Minutes published by the US Federal Reserve stated that “an unspecified number of committee members” had mooted discussing scaling back the central bank’s monthly bond purchases in a future meeting

Confidence that has permeated markets for weeks appeared to lose momentum this week as nonfarm payrolls and inflation figures caused the charging bull to take a moment to catch its breath. Nonfarm payrolls (a measure of US employment) fell far short of expectations whilst inflation printed its highest month-on-month gain since 2008.

After weeks of strength, markets have taken a pause to contemplate this week as investors weigh Biden’s proposal for higher taxes on the wealthy to fund his new social plan. With equity sentiment somewhat
stretched, it doesn’t take much for markets to consolidate and the stall this week is perhaps overdue after weeks of relentless drives upwards.

A recent report shows sales of electric vehicles across the world are growing significantly, we find out why this has happened, who the big players are and what the future holds.

Fiscal conditions are incredibly accommodative: interest rates are lying low; credit is freely available; and GDP is as if Covid never happened. The time to taper is nigh.

London’s rental market is back with a vengeance dismantling doubts that the pandemic might kill off the London property market. Rental values rose month-on-month for the first time since the pandemic, as the steep declines experience over the past 17 months begin to decline.

The investment bubbles in this article demonstrate that if something looks too good to be true, then it probably is. Bitcoin, for example, has seen tremendous highs and lows. That’s why we take a pragmatic approach, diversifying and creating portfolios designed to rise with the market but also to be resilient if the market falls.

It has been a very strong start to the year and investors should be pleased with the performance they have enjoyed but equally should not get carried away and must remember to think with a long term mindset as a setback in the second half of the year is at least possible.

The 2015 Paris Agreement laid plans to restrict global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2100. But we’re moving too slowly; scientists think warming in the 2–4 degree range is now more probable.