Brits struggle to cut back as inflation eats into budgets August 1, 2022 Brits are struggling to find any more areas of spending to cut back on to keep their finances above water, a new survey published today reveals. Over one in 10 households will have nothing else to slash from their budgets when the October energy price cap hike lands, according to a survey by Legal and [...]
Sky-high inflation slows UK private sector economy to ‘standstill’ August 1, 2022 Consumers reacting to scaling prices by cutting spending is expected to grind the UK economy to a halt, new surveys published today revealed. Private sector firms think they will squeeze out zero growth over the next three months, according to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the country’s largest business lobby group. Businesses are beginning [...]
Water sector debt risks market crisis warns watchdog July 31, 2022 Water utilities loaded with debt are at a growing risk of collapse as interest rates rise, argued David Black, chief executive of Ofwat.
Week ahead: City braces for biggest Bank rate hike since independence July 31, 2022 The City will this week be bracing for what could be the steepest interest rate rise since February 1995. London’s premier FTSE 100 index posted a strong performance last week, climbing just over two per cent to 7,423.43 points. The mid-cap domestically-focused FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the UK [...]
23m Brits on £2.4bn spending spree today as the nation tunes in for the Women’s Euro final July 31, 2022 Nearly 23m Brits are expected to spend money today as they will be celebrating England Women’s first appearance in a major football final since 2009. The EURO final today is expected to generate an average spend per person of over £46.08 before, during and after the match with the top purchases being food delivery (62%), [...]
Eurozone inflation surges to fresh record high dialling up pressure on ECB July 29, 2022 Prices are rising are the fastest pace on record in the eurozone, figures published today revealed. Inflation surged to 8.9 per cent, up from 8.6 per cent in June, the highest rate since the creation of the euro in 1999. The fresh figures dial up pressure on the European Central Bank (ECB) to hoist interest [...]
NatWest ups dividends as profits surge on the back of interest rate hikes July 29, 2022 NatWest today upped its dividend after its pre-tax profits increased 13 per cent to more than £2.6bn for the first half of 2022. Higher lending incomes on the back of the Bank of England’s interest rate hike lifted NatWest’s finances and saw the bank raise its full-year revenue forecast to around £12.5bn, up from previous [...]
Hefty £1.5bn trading error legal charge erodes Barclays profits July 28, 2022 A £1.5bn legal charge for a trading error has eroded British bank Barclays’s profits, it announced today. Hefty litigation and regulatory costs to deal with selling too many financial products dealt a major blow to Barclays’s first half earnings. Pre-tax profits dropped by a quarter to £3.7bn in the six months to June, down from [...]
Cost of living crisis prompts almost a third of UK workers to take second job July 28, 2022 Nearly third of workers in the UK are seeking to work two jobs to support themselves as the cost of living crisis sends prices of essentials soaring. 32 per cent of workers are aiming to take on a second job in addition to their current job to make more money, a national survey of 2000 [...]
US plunges into technical recession as rest of world braces for similar fate July 28, 2022 The US economy has plunged into a technical recession in a sign of things to come for the rest of the world, figures published today revealed. The American economy unexpectedly shrank 0.9 per cent in the three months to June, marking the second successive quarter the economy has contracted, meeting the common definition of a [...]