FTSE 100 Live: Blow for Reeves as economy shrank ahead of Budget December 12, 2025 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. Today fresh economic data has given another crucial assessment of the Chancellor’s growth agenda. The UK economy shrank 0.1 per cent in October as businesses paused investments amid consistent rumours around upcoming tax hikes in Rachel Reeves’ second Autumn Budget. A Bloomberg poll of City economists had predicted the Office [...]
Public spending fuelled growth spurt ‘no cause for celebration’ December 12, 2025 Labour’s “spend now, tax later” approach to fiscal policy will drive higher growth than previously expected, an industry group has said, but will leave UK public finances in a “vulnerable” position. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) upgraded its growth forecast for next year from 1 per cent to 1.3 per cent, with an extra [...]
Martin Lewis discovers the stock market December 11, 2025 All of us at City AM would like to give a heartfelt congratulations to personal finance guru Martin Lewis for his discovery of the stock market. This newfound enthusiasm could even see him in the running for the City Champion gong at next year’s City AM Awards. Lewis opened his ITV money show this week [...]
2025: It’s been one hell of a year for UK business December 11, 2025 From political drama to market volatility, cyber attacks, takeovers and trade wars – 2025 has not been plain sailing. January: motor finance and angry farmers We began the year reporting on the exodus from the London stock exchange noting that 2024 had been the quietest year on record for new listings and we suggested that [...]
Big banks SME lending comeback slowed down by Budget jitters December 11, 2025 High street banks’ return to small business lending slowed in the third quarter of 2025 after the chaos on the road to the Autumn Budget dampened activity in the economy. Big banks dished out nearly £4.2bn in total loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the three months to 30 September – a level [...]
UK exports forecast downgraded as Labour fails to kickstart trade December 11, 2025 British export growth will fall by almost half next year, a business forecaster has said, with Labour’s string of deals failing to improve hopes of a revival in international trade. The Labour government has made trade a key lever to boost growth prospects, using new deals with the likes of the EU and India to [...]
Rachel Reeves’ Budget was ‘monumentally mishandled,’ says London-listed bank December 11, 2025 A London-listed bank has given its scathing assessment of Rachel Reeves’ second Autumn Budget and warned of the impact it will have on consumer confidence. S&U – which was founded in 1938 and once known as Sports and Utilities – said the performance of its motor finance and property financing arms was “remarkably resilient given [...]
Sadiq Khan has derailed Labour’s nationalisation plans December 11, 2025 How is Keir Starmer’s plan to renationalise Britain’s railways going? Badly, if events in London are anything to go by. Yesterday we learned that Transport for London has awarded a £3bn, 10-year contract to First Group to operate the London Overground when the current contract with Arriva expires next year. That’s in direct conflict with [...]
FTSE 100 Live: BoE rate decision in focus after Fed cut December 11, 2025 Good morning from the City AM liveblog team. Last night the US Federal Reserve met and agreed to lower interest rates by a quarter-point to between 3.5 and 3.75 per cent. But it was far from a tranquil meeting, with policymakers battling it out over whether to prioritise high inflation or a poor labour market. [...]
English Common Law: Britain’s greatest soft power December 11, 2025 From London’s boardrooms to Abu Dhabi’s courtrooms, English law shapes the rules of global business as it quietly but decisively finds itself at the heart of international deals and disputes. The late Joseph S. Nye defined ‘soft power’ in the 1980s as “The ability to affect others to obtain the outcomes one wants through attraction [...]