Globalisation obituaries ‘hopelessly premature’ March 26, 2026 Boosting trade is the single best way to improve the long-term fortunes of the UK despite the economy being hit by a barrage of supply chain fractures and geopolitical shocks, the Bank of England’s former chief economist has said. In his first speech as president of the British Chambers of Commerce, Andy Haldane told delegates [...]
Donald Trump is deluded, but so are we March 25, 2026 On the public finances, energy and national security, comforting rhetoric has concealed policy drift that has undermined the status quo it purported to uphold, says Alys Denby Donald Trump’s claims of an imminent end to the war in Iran may bear only a tenuous connection to reality – like his on/off tariff threats – but [...]
Price growth set to almost double yet interest rate hike uncertain March 25, 2026 Price growth could jump to as high as five per cent within months, economists have said, leaving the outlook for interest rates more uncertain. Top City economists said they expected inflation to rise to nearly double the rate seen just before war in the Middle East broke out, leaving the Bank of England with a [...]
UK recession is ‘real possibility’ as Reeves meets City analysts March 24, 2026 The UK economy faces a “real possibility” of falling into a recession, a City economist has warned, as Chancellor Rachel Reeves and pensions minister Torsten Bell met with gilt analysts to discuss the shock from the war in the Middle East. The Chancellor invited top economists from firms key to the gilt markets to the [...]
UK must ‘urgently’ reopen North Sea drilling amid global volatility March 24, 2026 Households and businesses will be left even more exposed to geopolitical shocks like the one playing out in the Middle East unless the government “urgently” reopens the UK’s North Sea oil fields to new drilling projects, an industry body has warned. In its annual temperature check of Britain’s energy industry, Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) called [...]
How the Bank of England will read into outdated inflation data March 23, 2026 Can data be redundant? The Office for National Statistics will this week give the impression that inflation is stable. Economists have predicted the consumer price index inflation print for the year to February to come in at three per cent, like last month, which would have otherwise made for satisfactory reading. But the figures precede [...]
On This Day : the birth of ‘Mr Five Per Cent’ Calouste Gulbenkian March 23, 2026 Today in 1869, the man who would go on to shape global oil markets was born in Turkey, writes Eliot Wilson Conflict in the Persian Gulf continues to seethe, threatening a global energy crisis. The Middle East is so synonymous with oil that it is easy to think the world was always this way, that [...]
Reeves faces £20bn fiscal hole as energy crisis drives up costs March 22, 2026 Rachel Reeves is facing a potential £20bn shortfall in her spending plans as the Middle East energy crisis pushes up inflation, borrowing costs and pressure on public sector pay. The warning from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) comes as surging oil and gas prices begin to feed through into the wider economy, threatening to [...]
Starmer to convene emergency meeting over Iran war price shock March 21, 2026 Prime Minister Keir Starmer will convene an emergency meeting of senior cabinet ministers and the governor of the Bank of England next week, as prices continue to soar amid the Middle East conflict. The meeting will discuss plans to help households with the rising cost of living caused by the war in Iran, according to [...]
Borrowing costs soar to post-financial crisis high in blow to Reeves March 20, 2026 UK government borrowing costs have soared to their highest level since the Great Financial Crisis in 2008, with markets frightened by the state of public finances in the face of another global price shock. Gilt yields have inched up over the course of the week, with the ten-year gilt yield topping 4.9 per cent on [...]