Topic for usea but one that were eager to have a conversation about and im hoping that this will be the first of a continuing conversation because the matters that were going to address this afternoon are taking on a degree of urgency. Theyve always been urgent, but i think, myself, that the urgency is growing. So thank all of you for coming. We have an excellent set of panelists here today for our discussion. We hope to have audience participation as well. Moderating todays session is mark wolfe. Mark will provide a discussion and will moderate the discussion on the need for Energy Assistance. He is an economist and is an expert on local and Regional Energy and housing financing. He has consulted regularly for federal, state foundation and nonprofit agencies. He is very experienced at testifying before congress, and he is the executive director of the National Energy assistance Directors Association. And the Energy Program consortium and is the Founding Partner of project energy saver
Levels isnt yet hitting home. The energy bills should be coming down by now. Not from what ive seen. They keep putting the standard charge for electricity up and gas. But it doesnt feel like. The cost to go out for the day and eating and drink seems to be going up as well. Sometimes ijust dont even, like, pay for my wi fi because i cant, so we have to go without. Everything isjustl going up, isnt it . Everything. And you dont think that thats starting to calm down or stabilise . Anything you can see in your own bills . Maybe our gas and electric is i slightly better than it was or not as bad as it was getting, but apart from that, no, not really. The latest figures show food costs and prices in cafes and restaurants helping Drive Inflation down to 3. 1i last month the lowest level for two and a half years, well down on its 11 peak. From here, the Headline Rate of inflation is likely to fall below 2 , thats the governments target, driven by those falls in Energy Prices next month. But w
Im Caroline Hyde. As we were just saying, we are getting breaking numbers from allianz. Just to run you through some of the numbers, the outlook is confirmed on the upper end of the range. This is the number one european insurer, confirmed its fouryear forecast. Of 2e getting net income billion euros, ahead of analyst estimates. The operating profit came in at 2. 84 billion. We are looking at property and Casualty Insurance at 11. 8 billion euros. We will get much more on these breaking numbers with hans nichols. It looks as though the insurance side of things, hans, is missing a combined ratio, that we are seeing better than expected numbers from a revenue perspective. Hans yeah. This that income is a big beat. It is coming in north of 2 billion euros. On that front it is a big beat. When you look at whats happening in insurance, there havent been many natural asasters, so they could have little upside, although it looks like the insurance number is down on the property and casualty.
Welcome to the polls. Life from bloomberg headquarters here in london. It is jobs day in the u. S. Forstors will be searching meaning in the numbers ahead of the september Federal Reserve meeting. It may not be super thursday, but the u. S. Has key Economic Data on friday. The next to last jobs report before the Federal Reserves meets in september. The economist we raised we theeyed, predicts with unappointed rate Holding Steady at 5. 3 . As long as job growth and maintenance trend, with an average growth of 200,000, economists inc. The Federal Reserve will raise rates as early as september. Showed calls it a case of me why i shouldnt. One of the reasons the fed shouldnt is because of wage rates. The average will rise 0. 2 . And 0. 3 yearoveryear. Growth and pay is the one missing factor that would help push inflation up to their 2 target rate. Last week there was a negative sign for wages. The employment cost index which measures hourly pay an annual salary rose in the Second Quarter