Reeves’ £25bn tax grab to become ‘toxic reality’ for British business, firms suggest April 4, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ £25bn tax grab from employers will become a “toxic reality” for British businesses from Sunday as higher costs risk stunting firms’ income, one of the UK’s largest industry bodies has warned. Reeves’ has pinned her hopes for improving the state of public finances on growing the UK economy but more firms have [...]
How will Trump’s tariffs impact the UK economy? April 3, 2025 The US president holds up a sandwich board in the Rose Garden. On it is a list of countries. Next to each country are two columns: one for “tariffs charged to the USA” and one for “USA Discounted Reciprocal Tariffs”. The leader of the free world is cooking up a storm. “Our country has been [...]
Confidence in UK stocks hits new high among retail investors April 3, 2025 Confidence in the UK market has hit new highs among British retail investors as savers move away from US stocks. A third of all retail investors are backing the UK as the top performing stock market over the next five years, a survey of 1,000 investors from Etoro found, well above the previous record of [...]
UK to consult on ‘retaliatory tariffs’ as Tories call for employment reforms to be scrapped April 3, 2025 The UK will consult businesses on “possible retaliatory action’ including on US products that could face tariffs, in response to Donald Trump’s sweeping global import taxes. Jonathan Reynolds made the announcement to MPs in the House of Commons, stating: “To enable the UK to have every option open to us in the future, I am [...]
ICC boss: Tit for tat tariffs response risks return to Great Depression April 3, 2025 A ‘tit for tat’ response to Donald Trump’s tariffs risks plunging the world into an economic slowdown redolent of the Great Depression, the head of the world’s largest trade body as warned. Speaking to City AM, John Denton, secretary general of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), cautioned world leaders that any “thoughtless and knee [...]
Week in Business: Will Donald Trump’s trade war blow up the UK economy? April 3, 2025 Liberation Day, Independence Day, the greatest day in American history? Or the end of the global economic order and the start of a dangerous new world? In the end it was classic Trump, sometimes reading from an autocue as if for the first time, sometimes veering off script in erratic directions, calling out supporters in [...]
Trump tariffs to drag global growth down by trillions of dollars April 3, 2025 Donald Trump’s tariffs is set to drag the world economy down by trillions of dollars, according to forecasts by leading economists. The International Monetary Fund estimates the current global economy is worth more than $115 trillion and it has been predicted to grow by around three per cent, per various forecasts. But since Trump announced [...]
JD Sports, Dr Martens and miners: UK stocks hit by Trump tariffs April 3, 2025 UK markets have been pummelled by US president Donald Trump’s newly-introduced tariffs, with JD Sports and miners hit particularly hard on the FTSE 100. JD Sports has been pushing a rapid expansion into the US, which is now its largest region by revenue, but is set to be hit by the 10 per cent tariff [...]
FTSE 100 pharma giants GSK and Astrazeneca appear to swerve Trump tariffs April 3, 2025 FTSE 100 pharma giants GSK and Astrazeneca may have escaped the worst of US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, according to a City broker. Pharmaceutical goods appear to be exempt from higher-rate tariffs introduced by President Trump in his Rose Garden ‘Liberation Day’ address on Wednesday, but there is still uncertainty about the impact on the [...]
UK services and composite PMIs underwhelm economists April 3, 2025 The UK service sector saw a “modest expansion” in March but economists overestimated S&P Global’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) readings for the month. S&P Global’s latest composite PMI reading, which takes an average of manufacturing and services output for the month, came in at 51.5. The figure points to a slight expansion in UK output [...]