Bank of England interest rate hikes would squeeze Jeremy Hunt’s room for tax cuts by £8bn, City economist claims April 26, 2023 The Bank of England could squeeze Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s room to cut taxes in the run up to the next general election if it keeps hiking interest rates to tame inflation, a City economist has calculated. Officials at Threadneedle Street would swell Britain’s debt interest bill by around £8bn if they send borrowing costs to [...]
Did pumping cash into the economy fuel inflation surge? Bank top official says claim ‘not well supported by evidence’ April 25, 2023 Claims the Bank of England caused the worst inflation surge in the UK for more than 40 years by printing money are “not well supported by the evidence,” one of its top officials said today. Ben Broadbent, a deputy governor at the Bank, hit back at critics in a speech at Britain’s oldest economic think [...]
Jeremy Hunt handed £13bn windfall raising chance of tax cuts ahead of election April 25, 2023 Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has been handed a £13bn windfall from the UK public finances holding up better than expected, raising the chances of tax cuts ahead of the next general election, official figures out today reveal. Numbers from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) this morning showed the UK borrowed around £139bn in the year [...]
Grocery inflation dips by just 0.2 per cent as Aldi now has a tenth of the market April 25, 2023 Grocery price inflation dipped slightly in April – but consumers are still paying 17.3 per cent more than this time last year, figures show. Kantar warned that the fall from last month’s 17.5 per cent only meant that prices were not increasing as quickly after 10 months of double-digit growth. As consumers continued to find [...]
Britain’s renters are the real victims of this inflation and interest rate crunch April 25, 2023 People doubtless would’ve gasped at headlines last week about UK interest rates being on course for five per cent. Such a path looked implausible in March when Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse and Credit Suisse’s shotgun marriage to UBS sparked fears of a financial market meltdown. After those events, traders trimmed their expectations of how much more [...]
UK recession wobble sends FTSE profit warnings back to Covid-19 levels April 24, 2023 The UK’s flirtation with a recession over the last year or so has prompted a wave of the country’s top companies to warn shareholders to expect profits to miss forecasts, a new report out today shows. Profit warnings among UK-listed firms climbed to 75 in the first three months of this year, the highest level [...]
UK borrowing tipped to have jumped to £23bn in March but Hunt and Sunak are on course to hit OBR forecasts April 23, 2023 Britain is tipped to have borrowed nearly £23bn last month to help pay for capping energy bills at £2,500, according to City analysts’ consensus forecast. Fresh numbers out from the Office for National Statistics on Tuesday are expected to show the gap between what the government generates in revenue from taxes and spends on public [...]
UK economy in ‘early stages of recovery’ as families shrug off inflation and interest rate hikes April 21, 2023 Britain’s economy could be in the early stages of a recovery, with consumers holding up pretty well under the pressure of high inflation and interest rate increases, a closely watched survey out today indicates. Families’ outlook on how well the economy will perform over the coming year is improving, while confidence in their own personal [...]
FTSE 100 close: Inflation shock drags London index lower as real estate firms lead losses April 19, 2023 London’s FTSE 100 slipped today as investors took fright at UK inflation topping forecasts to stay in the double digits last month. The capital’s premier index shed 0.13 per cent to drop to 7,898.78 points, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the UK economy, fell 0.49 [...]
Will inflation ever fall back below 10 per cent? Yes, but we’ve been wrong before April 19, 2023 We find ourselves in the same situation again. UK inflation has topped the City and Bank of England’s expectations, hanging in the double digits in March at 10.1 per cent. The forecast was for it to slip to 9.8 per cent. Families and businesses will be forgiven for worrying whether it will ever fall back [...]