Post Brexit UK-US trade deal talks still on ice as Biden visits Northern Ireland April 12, 2023 Talks between the US and the UK on a post-Brexit free trade deal are not expected to resume until 2025, according to reports. Prime minister Rishi Sunak and US president Joe Biden are not said to have discussed the matter during a visit to Northern Ireland to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday [...]
Andrew Bailey stresses Bank of England focused on inflation fight rather than Credit Suisse and SVB fallout April 12, 2023 The recent run of chaos in the global financial system that has laid waste to Credit Suisse and Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has not distracted the Bank of England from trying to tame inflation in the UK, the monetary authority’s chief said today. Speaking at an event at the International Monetary Fund’s spring meeting, Andrew [...]
UK debt burden to top size of whole economy putting Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt pledge at risk, IMF forecasts April 12, 2023 Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt are on course to oversee the UK’s debt burden swelling to more than the size of the entire economy, putting one of the pair’s five pledges to taxpayers in peril, according to new forecasts out today. Britain’s debt to GDP ratio is tipped to climb to just over 101 per [...]
Government risks higher wind power prices as industry slams lack of funds for auction round April 12, 2023 The latest ongoing auction window for offshore wind projects could result in higher generation prices and a shortage in bidders.
Retail sector pins hopes on King’s coronation to lift sales April 12, 2023 Shoppers put cost of living fears behind them as they splashed out on Mother Day gifts in March, helping to slightly boost retail sales, but damp weather and soaring inflation has left the sector holding out for the King’s coronation in May to see a “larger uptick” in sales. According to data by the British [...]
Recession clouds lift over UK jobs market as hiring begins to recover April 12, 2023 Recession clouds are receding from the UK jobs market as companies gradually regain confidence about hiring workers following a batch of better than expected economic data since the turn of the year, new figures out today reveal. Firms are dipping their toes back in the recruitment market, lured by household spending holding up better than [...]
Megan Greene to replace Silvana Tenreyro on Bank of England’s rate-setting committee this summer April 11, 2023 Megan Greene has been appointed by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to the Bank of England’s interest rate-setting committee, replacing top dove Silvana Tenreyro from 5 July. Greene will join the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) from consultancy Kroll, where she has been global chief economist and a regular columnist for the Financial Times. The Treasury announced [...]
IMF: UK economy to toy with recession this year – and fall to the bottom of global growth leaderboard April 11, 2023 Britain is steering toward the bottom of the G7 economic growth table this year and will toy with a recession for most of 2023, the world’s economic watchdog warned today. UK gross domestic product is tipped to shrink 0.3 per cent per cent in 2023, the weakest performance of any economy in the group of [...]
IMF: Risks to financial stability have ‘increased rapidly’ but won’t threaten fight against inflation April 11, 2023 Risks to financial stability have “increased rapidly” since October last year but they were unlikely to be big enough to distract central banks from fighting inflation, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said today. The global economic watchdog’s biannual financial stability report pointed to a range of different threats to financial stability following the turmoil in the banking [...]
FTSE 100 close: Glencore and Rio Tinto power London index upwards despite downbeat IMF projections April 11, 2023 London’s FTSE 100 kicked off a shortened trading week in robust fashion today, lifted by miners scaling higher despite the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warning the global economy is on course to suffer a sharp slowdown over the coming decade. The capital’s premier index jumped 0.57 per cent to 7,785.73 points, while the domestically-focused mid-cap [...]