Pound records strong week as London markets expects Bank to hike rates further Pound The pound has recorded its strongest week against the dollar in half a year as investors expect the Bank of England to keep hiking rates after the Fed has paused. Across the week, the pound gained more than 1.5 per cent against the dollar to trade at over $1.2530 on Friday afternoon. The pound performed [...]
HSBC leads banks’ plans to hike savings rates – and analysts say they could go up even further Savings rates HSBC UK is boosting the interest rates on some savings accounts with increases of up to 0.75 percentage points, the bank has announced. The increases will come into effect next week, on Thursday June 8. They include a 0.75 percentage point increase on the bank’s mysavings and premier savings youth accounts, taking rates to 5.00 [...]
Record £9bn pumped into ISAs as Brits capitalise on higher interest rates uk economy Brits are yanking cash out of high street savings accounts and piling it into products that tie up their money for a longer period in exchange for a better interest rate, official figures out today show. Savers dropped £3.6bn into banks and building societies in April, nearly all of which went into fixed savings accounts [...]
Euro inflation slumps faster than expected to 6.1 per cent leaving UK further afield June 1, 2023 Inflation in Europe is falling much faster than expected, further marking Britain out as suffering the toughest price pressures in the developed world. The rate of price increases in the 20 countries using the euro dropped to 6.1 per cent last month, down from seven per cent in the previous month, according to eurostat. That [...]
Recession uncertainty arrests UK business confidence upward march June 1, 2023 Uncertainty about whether the UK economy will tip into a recession caused by sky high inflation and the Bank of England hiking interest rates aggressively to tame it is keeping businesses grounded, a new survey out today shows. A five straight month upward rise in optimism among leaders of Britain’s biggest firms was arrested in [...]
Bank of England to surpass Federal Reserve and hike interest rates to 15-year high May 31, 2023 The Bank of England will have to hike interest rates to their highest level in more than 15 years to tackle sticky inflation that will stay above its target for at least another three years, a top Wall Street investment bank has warned today. Researchers at Goldman Sachs suspect businesses will carry on passing on [...]
People who get ‘poor’ bank rates should ‘shop around’, DWP sec Mel Stride says May 31, 2023 People who feel they are getting “very poor” interest on their savings should “shop around” and find a bank that will pay “a better rate”, the Work and Pensions Secretary has said. Mel Stride said some of the “stickiness” comes because there is “often inertia” and that it is “relatively easy to change and switch [...]
London businesses most confident in the UK amid economic slowdown May 31, 2023 London businesses are poised to lead the UK economy out of its slowdown, although they remain acutely concerned about the impact of higher interest rates and scorching inflation, a new survey out today shows. Confidence among the capital’s firms slimmed four points to 43 per cent, although that was the highest reading of any area [...]
Inflation to top Bank of England target until at least 2026, Goldman Sachs warn May 30, 2023 Inflation in the UK is set to top the Bank of England’s target for at least the next three years, likely forcing governor Andrew Bailey and co to tip the country into recession via yet more interest rate rises, a top Wall Street bank has warned. Researchers at Goldman Sachs late last night hiked their [...]
FTSE 100 close: London index extends losses as pound slides and bond yields soar May 25, 2023 London’s FTSE 100 continued yesterday’s wobble today driven by investors fretting over how high the Bank of England will have to send interest rates to tame sticky inflation. The capital’s premier index slipped 0.74 per cent to 7,570.88 points, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the [...]