As it happened: Markets on high alert as Streeting calls on Starmer to resign Markets Welcome back to the City AM liveblog. The past few days of political drama have to come to a head today and UK assets are bracing for a showdown. All eyes were on the bond market after Wes Streeting resigned as health secretary and called for a leadership contest. Gilt yields see-sawed yesterday as Sir [...]
Voters have not understood the reality of a zero growth economy Opinion Since 2019, UK national income per head has grown by just 0.1 per cent a year on average. In other words, essentially zero growth. It means that the resources available to the economy, whether for private or public use, do not change, says Paul Ormerod Does life imitate art? Evelyn Waugh’s comic masterpiece Vile Bodies, [...]
Britain is far poorer than people think Opinion Most Brits do not realise they are poorer than the average Americans, Swiss, Australians or Singaporeans. When asked to rank the UK among 50 US states on GDP per capita, on average people placed the UK 7th, richer than 43 states. The truth is far more miserable – we are last, says Callum Price There’s [...]
‘Pressure point’: Oil prices spike as Trump turns up heat on Nato March 16, 2026 The price of oil spiked once more as trading for the new week began after Donald Trump ramped up pressure on his Nato peers to help get supply flowing. Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, jumped 2.9 per cent as trading open after the weekend to near $106.12 a barrel, but later gave [...]
Oil crisis to ‘push UK into recession’ after growth flatlines March 13, 2026 Fears that the ongoing crisis in the Middle East will plunge the UK into a recession have been amplified after fresh figures revealed the economy flatlined in January. The price of oil closed above $100 for the first time since 2022 last night as interventions from the global energy body failed to calm markets amid [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Stocks fall as oil rocks markets; Reeves struck by flat economy March 13, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. Fresh figures this morning have shown the UK economy was flat in the first month of the year. It marked a blow to the government’s growth agenda but this will likely be viewed as a small blow ahead of global economies being thrown into turmoil [...]
‘Taxed to a standstill’ – UK economy grinds to a halt with no growth in January March 13, 2026 The UK economy saw zero growth in the first month of the year – before global markets were rocked by the outbreak of war in the Middle East. Fresh figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have handed a major blow to Rachel Reeves with the economy flat in January, compared to the 0.2 [...]
Services sector cuts jobs and hikes prices after Reeves’ tax raid March 4, 2026 The UK’s services sector has turned to hiking prices and shedding workers in an effort to balance the books in the face of rising cost pressures from government policy. Businesses activity picked up for the tenth-consecutive month in February, according to the latest Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) from S&P, but came amid a “solid” amount [...]
Meet Reeves’ outsider tasked with steering the City to growth March 3, 2026 The City has rolled out the red carpet for the banking watchdog’s new chief after Katharine Braddick, a seasoned veteran of the financial trenches, was named on Friday as the successor to Sam Woods. For a cool £314,000 a year, she’s set to take on the brief of steering the UK’s banking sector. Chancellor Rachel [...]
Politicians and voters must wake up to reality of a zero growth economy February 25, 2026 The past six years have been the worst period for growth in normal peace time since the start of the Industrial Revolution over 200 years ago, says Paul Ormerod The latest estimates from the Office of National Statistics show virtually no growth in the size of the economy in the period October to December 2025. [...]