Bank of England not poised to slash interest rates until middle of next year despite inflation cooling February 5, 2023 A year of interest rate pain is still in store for households, businesses and mortgagors even after Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey and his team of economists have already lifted borrowing costs 10 times in a row. That is according to several top City economists, who do not expect interest rate cuts until early [...]
Digital pound coming this decade, unpublished Treasury and BoE report suggests February 5, 2023 The Bank of England (BoE) and the Treasury are convinced that a central bank digital currency (CBDC) is becoming increasingly necessary, an unpublished report seen by the Daily Telegraph suggests. “On the basis of our work to date, the Bank of England and HM Treasury judge that it is likely a digital pound will be [...]
Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group to buy two shopping centres in £100m deal February 5, 2023 Mike Ashley is gearing up to purchase two shopping centres in an £100 million deal, in a sign that the retail sector might be starting to stabilise. Frasers Group, majority owned by Ashley, is in the final stages of negotiations to acquire The Mall in Luton and the Overgate centre in Dundee, The Sunday Times [...]
Barclays boss recounts criticism of refusing to stop work amid cancer treatment February 5, 2023 Barclays chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan said that some people accused him of “CEO swagger” when he said he intended to work through his cancer treatment. Writing in the Financial Times for World Cancer Day, Venkatakrishnan – who prefers to be known as Venkat – said he received some messages after his diagnoses that suggested his [...]
Executive pay rises should not outstrip staff salary bumps, Aviva warns February 5, 2023 Aviva Investors has warned company directors that it would be “inappropriate” to award themselves bumper pay rises and urged them to recognise that record high inflation puts far greater pressure on the budgets of their frontline staff. In a letter to the 1,600 firms in which it has stakes, including many in London, the fund [...]
Week ahead: UK economy to narrowly avoid recession but GDP still expected to shrink February 5, 2023 The UK economy narrowly avoided a recession at the end of last year, new official figures out this week are expected to reveal. City traders think new GDP numbers from the Office for National Statistics on Friday will show the economy contracted 0.3 per cent in December, meaning the UK will have just about skirted [...]
UK spent £60bn on gas to stave off winter energy crunch February 5, 2023 The UK spent £60bn importing gas in just four months to stave off a winter energy crunch, according to analysis from Highview Power.
West needs to prepare for energy crunch next winter, analysts warn February 5, 2023 Experts have urged the West against complacency next winter, warning that the energy crisis could last for years to come.
Liz Truss breaks silence to blame media and ‘leftward’ shift for £45bn mini budget failure February 5, 2023 Liz Truss has broken her silence for the first time since being booted out from Number 10 to hit back at critics of her tax cutting, pro-growth economic agenda. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph today, Truss, 47, said she was never given a “realistic chance” to implement sweeping tax cuts designed to unshackle businesses and [...]
FTSE close: Blue chip index sets a new record high as recession and inflation fears ease February 3, 2023 London’s FTSE 100 Index ended the week on a high having reached its highest ever score, beating the previous record of 7,903.5 set in May 2018. On Friday, the index had briefly pushed as high as 7,906.58 as global inflation and interest rate fears continued to ease. The index of the UK’s largest publicly-listed firms [...]
