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US consumer price growth resumed its rapid rise in May, accelerating 1 per cent during the month as rising inflation in the services sector added urgency to the Federal Reserve’s plans to aggressively tighten monetary policy. The monthly rise in the consumer price index, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday, was significantly

The European Central Bank has paved the way for a series of rate rises, starting with a quarter-percentage point move in July and raising the prospect of a bigger half-point shift in September. The ECB said in a statement on Thursday that its governing council “intends to raise the key ECB interest rates by 25 basis

Economic growth in the UK will grind to a halt next year with only Russia, hobbled by western sanctions, performing worse among the G20 leading economies, the OECD forecast on Wednesday. The Paris-based organisation’s forecast highlighted the effects of high UK inflation still squeezing household and corporate incomes in 2023 alongside a further round of

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said a stalemate in the war with Russia was “not an option for us” as he once more appealed for western military support to restore his country’s territorial integrity. “We are inferior in terms of equipment and therefore we are not capable of advancing,” he said. “We are going to suffer

Boris Johnson is facing a vote of no confidence in his leadership on Monday evening in a dramatic escalation of tension between the prime minister and his own MPs. Conservative MPs will vote in a secret ballot from 6pm to 8pm on whether they want Johnson to carry on as prime minister. Downing Street said

Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff on Sunday hit back at remarks by Emmanuel Macron in which the French president said it was important not to “humiliate” Russia over the war in Ukraine. In an interview with French regional newspapers on Saturday, Macron said maintaining dialogue with Vladimr Putin was crucial “so that the day when

Ukraine has warned that the world faces a critical food shortage unless Russia lifts its Black Sea port blockade, as improvements to other transport options would only enable it to deliver a fraction of its total grain stockpile. Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine’s infrastructure minister, told the Financial Times that “all of our activity won’t cover even

Global investors are returning to China’s stock markets after a widespread sell-off earlier this year triggered by draconian Covid-19 restrictions, the geopolitical implications of Russia’s war in Ukraine and the lingering effects of regulatory crackdowns. The country’s CSI 300 stocks index started 2022 with the worst quarterly drop since the popping of a debt-fuelled bubble

Saudi Arabia has indicated to western allies that it is prepared to raise oil production should Russia’s output fall substantially under the weight of sanctions, according to five people familiar with the discussions. The kingdom has resisted calls from the White House to accelerate production increases despite oil prices trading near $120 a barrel, the

The chief executive of Germany’s top asset management firm DWS Group has resigned after the company’s offices were raided by police over allegations of greenwashing. DWS said in a statement on Wednesday morning that Asoka Wöhrmann, chief executive since late 2018, had resigned with effect from June 10, the day after the group’s annual meeting.

Eurozone inflation rose faster than expected in the year to May, setting a new record for the single currency bloc of 8.1 per cent and piling pressure on the European Central Bank to speed up the withdrawal of its ultra-loose monetary policy. The surge in eurozone price growth, from 7.4 per cent the previous month,

Oil rose higher than $120 a barrel on Monday as tightness in refined fuel markets and concern over supplies from Russia propelled prices to the highest level in two months. Brent crude, the international benchmark, hit a two-month high of $120.50 a barrel in early trading, up 1 per cent ahead of the July contract’s

The UK tax authority has admitted it has no idea how much tax is being evaded by UK residents holding money offshore, after new figures revealed hundreds of billions of pounds was held in tax havens. HM Revenue & Customs disclosed in freedom of information requests that UK residents had £850bn in financial accounts overseas

EY is exploring a public listing or partial sale of its global advisory business as part of the most radical transformation of a Big Four accountancy firm in two decades, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. A stake sale or listing would raise the prospect of a massive windfall for EY’s existing

UK chancellor Rishi Sunak said his latest package of support for UK households will have a “minimal impact” on inflation after the government announced a windfall tax on energy companies to fund lower fuel bills. “Our estimate and my view is that it will have a minimal impact on inflation,” Sunak told Sky News on

Rishi Sunak will on Thursday announce an emergency multibillion-pound package of support for British households facing spiralling domestic energy bills this autumn, partly funded by a windfall tax on energy companies. Those briefed on the UK chancellor’s thinking said the government support could be worth more than £10bn and will be primarily focused on the

The £4.25bn sale of Chelsea Football Club by the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, who is under sanctions, has been signed off by the British government, securing the club’s survival under new American ownership. Nadine Dorries, UK culture secretary, wrote on Twitter on Monday that the government had issued a licence permitting the sale of the

Auditors and tax advisers in the UK are lobbying the government for exemptions from a ban on working for businesses in Russia imposed after the invasion of Ukraine. Foreign secretary Liz Truss this month announced plans to force British accounting, management consulting and public relations firms to cut ties with Russian clients as part of

US president Joe Biden has pledged to defend Taiwan militarily if China were to invade in remarks made during his first visit to Japan. “Yes. That is the commitment we made,” Biden said at a joint news conference in Tokyo when asked whether he was willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan. Speaking alongside

The EU’s decision to suspend its deficit and debt rules for an extra year is not an excuse for member states to persist with loose spending policies, Germany’s finance minister Christian Lindner has said, in a call for more fiscal discipline. “The fact that member states are now able to deviate from the Stability and

China is intensifying its drive for influence in the Pacific by negotiating security deals with two additional island nations following a pact with the Solomon Islands, according to officials in the US and allied countries. Beijing’s talks with Kiribati, a Pacific island nation 3,000km from Hawaii where US Indo-Pacific Command is based, are the most

Huw Pill, the Bank of England’s chief economist, said on Friday that it was “crucial” to ensure that the UK avoids stoking an “inflationary psychology” and indicated he supported further interest rate rises. With inflation having reached a 40-year high in April, Pill said that prices rising at more than four times the central bank’s

Shares in Chinese technology companies led declines across the Asia-Pacific region in the wake of Wall Street’s worst day since the early months of the coronavirus pandemic as concerns mounted over global growth. Hong Kong-listed shares in Tencent fell as much as 8.6 per cent on Thursday after the Chinese internet group reported its slowest

UK inflation hit 9 per cent in April, its highest level in over 40 years, after soaring gas and electricity bills intensified the cost of living crisis facing households. The rate of consumer price inflation was close to economists’ expectations and is almost double the rate the Bank of England expected only six months ago.

Vladimir Putin has signalled Russia will tolerate Finland and Sweden joining Nato but warned that the Kremlin would respond if the alliance installed military bases or equipment in either country. Putin said on Monday that the proposed Nato enlargement posed “no direct threat for Russia”, according to the news agency Interfax. He added that he

Finland is applying for Nato membership in a historic move that would more than double the defence alliance’s borders with Russia and change the geopolitics of Europe. “This is a historic day. A new era starts,” Finnish president Sauli Niinistö said at a press conference, as Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, another non-Nato member

German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said the G7 group of industrialised nations was urgently seeking alternative routes for the export of Ukrainian grain as Russia’s war against its western neighbour raised the risk of a global “hunger crisis”. Speaking at the conclusion of a three-day meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Germany, Baerbock said some

Elon Musk on Friday tweeted that he had put his $44bn deal to take Twitter private “temporarily on hold” pending details supporting the calculation that spam and fake accounts represented fewer than 5 per cent of users. Musk posted his remarks on the microblogging site with a report from the Reuters news agency about the

BP has committed to reinvest all its profits from its North Sea oil and gas production over the next decade back into the UK, as it sought to head off political pressure for a windfall tax to help offset energy costs for consumers. “This decade with our current plans we expect to reinvest every pound

US consumer price growth remained at a four-decade high in April, despite the first moderation in the annual pace in eight months, underscoring the urgency of the Federal Reserve’s push to stamp out inflation. The consumer price index rose at an annual pace of 8.3 per cent last month, a step down from the 8.5