Aurelia Butler

It said shopper numbers, or footfall, plunged 8.5% in central London and 6.4% in cities outside of the capital.The outcome was better in smaller market towns, shopping centres and retail parks, with footfall up 3.4%, 0.5% and 4.7% respectively, Springboard said.Britain first voiced concern about the Omicron variant on Nov. 25. Two weeks later Prime Minister Boris Johnson stepped up COVID-19 restrictions in England, asking people to work from home, wear masks in public places and use certificates of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test to slow the spread. Springboard said total shopper numbers over the week to Dec. 18, traditionally one of the biggest shopping weeks of the year, were up 5.5% versus the previous week.The gap in footfall from the 2019 level was 19.1% last week, but footfall was 22.5% above 2020 when many shops were closed during a general lockdown.”The growing nervousness of consumers meant that (footfall) increases dwindled with each day that passed,” said Springboard director Diane Wehrle.”This provided a forewarning for subdued performance of bricks and mortar stores and destinations over the weekend, which…is exactly what occurred.”Omicron has heightened fears of a muted end to the year. Last week electricals retailer Currys said its market had softened and online fashion retailer Boohoo warned on profit.But while Britain’s economy looks set to take another hit from the latest wave of the pandemic, analysts believe it is unlikely to be anything like as severe as the plunge when the country went into its first lockdown last year.Pantheon Macroeconomics estimated the economy was currently on course to shrink by 1% between November and January.That would grow to a 2% contraction if the government reverts to controls it introduced last spring – which included limiting pubs and restaurants to outdoor table service – or a 6% slump in the event of a full lockdown, Pantheon said.By comparison, Britain’s economy shrank by 19% in the April-June period of last year.Finance minister Rishi Sunak has been discussing possible new support measures for the hospitality industry, which has borne the brunt of the Omicron impact.Data from online booking site OpenTable showed bookings in Britain in the week to Sunday fell by 14% from the previous week and were 23% lower than a month ago. More

He told reporters confinements and other consequences of surging infection numbers were worrying, but “should not lead to an increase in inflation, on the contrary”.”We have to remain cautious,” he added.ECB policymakers meeting last week sought a greater acknowledgement of inflation risks, sources close to the debate told Reuters, but the bank has stuck with its narrative that price growth will slip back below the target level on its own in late 2022. More

(Reuters) – This year, tech CEOs drew inspiration from a 1990s sci-fi novel, Reddit investors’ lexicon seeped into the mainstream as “diamond hands” and “apes” shook Wall Street, and something called a DAO tried to buy a rare copy of the U.S. Constitution.If you’re still drawing a blank as 2021 wraps up, here’s a short glossary:METAVERSEThe metaverse broadly refers to shared, immersive digital environments which people can move between and may access via virtual reality or augmented reality headsets or computer screens.Some tech CEOs are betting it will be the successor to the mobile internet. The term was coined in the dystopian novel “Snow Crash” three decades ago. This year CEOs of tech companies from Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) to Match Group (NASDAQ:MTCH) have discussed their roles in building the metaverse. In October, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) renamed itself Meta to reflect its new metaverse focus.WEB3Web3 is used to describe a potential next phase of the internet: a decentralized internet run on the record-keeping technology blockchain. This model, where users would have ownership stakes in platforms and applications, would differ from today’s internet, known as Web2, where a few major tech giants like Facebook and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s Google control the platforms. SOCIAL AUDIOTech companies waxed lyrical this year about tools for live audio conversations, rushing to release features after the buzzy, once invite-only app Clubhouse saw an initial surge amid COVID-19 lockdowns.NFTNon-fungible tokens, which exploded in popularity this year, are a type of digital asset that exists on a blockchain, a record of transactions kept on networked computers.In March, a work by American artist Beeple sold for nearly $70 million at Christie’s, the first ever sale by a major auction house of art that does not exist in physical form. DECENTRALIZATIONDecentralizing, or the transfer of power and operations from central authorities like companies or governments to the hands of users, emerged as a key theme in the tech industry.Such shifts could affect everything from how industries and markets are organized to functions like content moderation of platforms. Twitter (NYSE:TWTR), for example, is investing in a project to build a decentralized common standard for social networks, dubbed Bluesky.DAOA decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) is generally an internet community owned by its members and run on blockchain technology. DAOs use smart contracts, pieces of code that establish the group’s rules and automatically execute decisions.In recent months, crowd-funded crypto-group ConstitutionDAO tried and failed to buy a rare copy of the U.S. Constitution in an auction held by Sotheby’s.STONKSThis deliberate misspelling of “stocks,” which originated with an internet meme, made headlines as online traders congregating in forums like Reddit’s WallStreetBets drove up stocks including GameStop (NYSE:GME) and AMC. The lingo of these traders, calling themselves “apes” or praising the “diamond hands” who held positions during big market swings, became mainstream.GAMEFIGameFi is a broad term referring to the trend of gamers earning cryptocurrency through playing video games, where players can make money through mechanisms like getting financial tokens for winning battles in the popular game Axie Infinity.ALTCOINThe term covers all cryptocurrencies aside from Bitcoin, ranging from ethereum, which aims to be the backbone of a future financial system, to Dogecoin, a digital currency originally created as a joke and popularized by Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk. FSD BETATesla released a test version of its upgraded Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, a system of driving-assistance features – like automatically changing lanes and make turns – to the wider public this year.The name of the much-scrutinized software has itself been contentious, with regulators and users saying it misrepresents its capabilities as it still requires driver attention.FABS “Fabs,” short for a semiconductor fabrication plant, entered the mainstream lexicon this year as a shortage of chips from fabs were blamed for the global shortage of everything from cars to gadgets. NET ZEROA term, popularized this year thanks to the COP26 U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, for saying a country, company, or product does not contribute to global greenhouse gas emissions. That’s usually accomplished by cutting emissions, such as use of fossil fuels, and balancing any remaining emissions with efforts to soak up carbon, like planting trees. Critics say any emissions are unacceptable. More

Unexpectedly rushed through parliament on Friday, the legislation would tighten rules around foreign ownership of media, specifically affecting the ability of news channel TVN24, owned by U.S. media company Discovery (NASDAQ:DISCA) Inc, to operate.”We are following the latest developments with concern,” a European Commission spokesperson told a news conference in Brussels.The Commission expects EU member states to ensure their policies and laws do not undermine their commitment to ensure a free, independent and diverse media sector, he said. The bill, yet to be signed into law by President Andrzej Duda, has soured ties between NATO-member state Poland and the United States at a time of heightened tension in eastern Europe over what some countries see as increased Russian assertiveness.The European Commission said it would follow developments in Poland closely as the law could lead to enforced changes of the ownership structure of media companies.”The vote that took place on Friday puts further pressure on the media sector on Poland…It may lead to limitation of media freedom in Poland where the media landscape already suffers under growing politicization,” the spokesperson said, noting nationwide protests against the bill over the weekend.Poland’s ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party has long said that foreign media groups have too much power in the country and distort public debate.Critics say the moves against foreign media groups are part of an increasingly authoritarian agenda that has put Warsaw at loggerheads with Brussels over LGBT rights and judicial reforms. More