Yahoo Finance The 10 most popular finance Yahoo Search terms in 2018
2018 has been a hugely eventful year in politics and business, with Britain’s looming departure from the European Union dominating the headlines above all else.
It was probably inevitable that Brexit would be among the 10 most popular Yahoo Search terms on financial topics in the UK, but some of the other raft of searches are more surprising.
Here is a run-down of what our readers most wanted to find out more about in 2018:
10. The Budget
Budget day is a hugely significant annual event in the UK, with the Chancellor unveiling plans that directly affect most people in the country as consumers, workers, public service users or investors.
This year’s October budget by chancellor Philip Hammond included a rise in the personal tax-free allowance, stamp duty cuts for first-time buyers, freezes on fuel and flight duties and a new tax on tech giants.
9. Dow Jones
Investors and others in the business world were keen followers via the Yahoo Finance UK site of the Dow Jones (^DJI) , one of the world’s best-known stock indexes and a key measure of the health of the US economy.
President Donald Trump’s turbulent presidency and trade war with China, as well as several interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve has led to wild global market routs, leaving investors feeling ‘gullible’ and burned.
8. GDPR
2018 was the year that data protection seemed to go mainstream, with millions of organisations across the UK and Europe forced to up their game in protecting consumers’ privacy and other rights.
It was all down to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) being implemented from May 2018, marking the most important change in data privacy regulation in 20 years.
7. Minimum Wage
The minimum wage changes every year in the UK, and recent years have seen it rising faster than previously, so it is no surprise workers and employees want to see the latest numbers.
The minimum wage varies according to workers’ ages, but those aged 25 and over have a right to £7.83 an hour. It will next increase in April 2019.
6. Bitcoin
2018 was the year the world’s first and biggest cryptocurrency celebrated its 10th birthday.
But it probably won’t be a year to remember for investors. Bitcoin’s value plummeted for much of the year after what many analysts now say was an unfounded record rally in 2017.
If you don’t know your Bitcoin from your Ethereum, Yahoo Finance UK’s senior city correspondent Oscar Williams-Grut has written this helpful explainer for anyone wondering what cryptocurrencies actually are.
5. Universal Credit
Alarm among MPs over the government’s radical and long-delayed new benefit system, universal credit, reached fever pitch in 2018 as their postbags began to bulge with horror stories from constituents.
The government has dug in its heels and pressed on with the controversial shakeup, which rolls six existing benefits into one, with the Chancellor pledging new money to the scheme in his 2018 Budget.
4. House Prices
The seemingly unstoppable rise in UK house prices has finally slowed, with annual price increases in the past year at a five-year low.
London’s overheated market saw prices actually fall for many months in 2018, with new taxes, regulations and the spectre of Brexit weighing on buyers’ minds.
3. Brexit
Britain is now only 100 days away from leaving the EU, unravelling decades of increasing economic and political connections with its biggest trading partner.
It could have huge implications for many areas of day-to-day life and the politics of Brexit so far have been anything but smooth, so it is no surprise that it makes the list.
2. London Stock Exchange (LSE)
Countless different concerns will have been weighing on the minds of investors in the stock market in 2018, but they will have included fears over global trade tensions and the growing risk of a no-deal Brexit.
1. The Pound / FOREX
It has been a rollercoaster year for sterling, with its ups and downs often intertwined with the latest twists and turns in the UK government’s fraught negotiations over Brexit.
It hit a 20-month low in December, and some analysts fear it could even sink to parity with the euro in 2019.
