Businesses ‘yearning for stability’ says UK bank chief March 13, 2026 Businesses are “yearning” for stability, according to a top banking chief executive, as the turmoil in the Middle East threatens to upend the global economy. Ian Corfield, the boss of London-listed Secure Trust Bank, told City AM: “I think the reality is that even before things kicked off a month ago, obviously nerves were increasing. [...]
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 [...]
UK economic rebound to be short-lived as Iran war shock looms March 11, 2026 The UK economy is predicted to have seen modest growth at the start of the year while the labour market appeared to be easing and interest rates were very much on a downward path. Forecasters agreed the outlook for the UK economy looked reasonably promising, if not exciting. That was until President Trump spoiled the [...]
Watch: War brings Reeves’ failures into focus March 5, 2026 War in the Middle East rendered the Chancellor’s Spring Statement “irrelevant” according to City analysts as the economic impacts of the Iran conflict become frighteningly clear. Rachel Reeves made just a passing mention of the Iran war when she addressed MPs on Tuesday, referring briefly to global instability while trying to paint a picture of [...]
Reeves is outrageously complacent on economic growth March 5, 2026 The dust has settled on the Chancellor’s pointless Spring Statement and, if anything, it looks even worse in the rear-view mirror than it did in real time. Yesterday, top think-tanks and policy wonks chewed over the claims made by Rachel Reeves in her panglossian speech to MPs, and they don’t appear to be overly impressed. [...]
Living standards to be ‘far bleaker’ after 2026 despite Reeves’ claims March 4, 2026 UK living standards are projected to drop in the two years before the next General Election as economists warned people were heading for “far bleaker” times ahead, turning up the heat on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to deliver on a commitment to ease the cost of living. Economists at the Resolution Foundation, the left-leaning Westminster think [...]
Reeves says ‘everything is fine’ as economy burns March 4, 2026 Having stripped the ‘fiscal’ element from the fiscal event, we were left with simply an event. But was it even that? It could have been called an occasion, but even that might have been stretching it. What we actually got was a Spring Statement that amounted to little more than a Labour party conference speech. [...]
Spring Statement: Reeves defends Labour’s agenda as growth forecast slashed March 3, 2026 Chancellor Rachel Reeves has defended Labour’s high tax and expenditure policies as new economic forecasts provided a bleaker outlook on growth and unemployment this year. In a statement to the House of Commons, Reeves said updated forecasts by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) showed her decisions as Chancellor were “starting to pay off”. Her [...]