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More governments will need to intervene to relieve the strains on Europe’s power market, officials and industry figures have warned, after Sweden and Finland launched emergency backstops for their energy producers and UK electricity generators called on the British government to help. The Nordic states this weekend both announced emergency financial liquidity measures for their

Sweden will give emergency liquidity support to electricity producers as its prime minister warned that Russia’s decision to halt gas deliveries to Europe could place its financial system under severe strain. Magdalena Andersson said on Saturday that the government would offer hundreds of billions of kroner in funding to electricity producers, who have seen the

Russia has indefinitely suspended natural gas flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, exacerbating a squeeze on Europe’s energy supplies and deepening the recession risks faced in the EU. State-owned Gazprom, which was meant to restore operations on the Baltic Sea pipeline on Saturday after three days of maintenance, said the suspension was due to

Vladimir Putin has called Ukraine “an anti-Russian enclave” as Moscow delivered a fresh threat to western efforts to curb surging energy prices. Speaking in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad on Thursday, Putin said of Ukraine: “Our guys who are fighting there are defending both the residents of Donbas [the industrial area in the east largely

Sterling is on track to post its steepest monthly decline since the wake of the Brexit referendum against a backdrop of intensifying economic and political uncertainty. The pound traded on Wednesday as low as $1.16, leaving it down 4.6 per cent this month in the steepest decline since October 2016. Sterling has also declined by

Big investors are betting on a fresh surge in UK borrowing costs because of mounting concerns the energy crisis will inflame inflation and trigger further Bank of England rate rises. The darkening outlook for the £2tn gilt market comes as surging energy prices exacerbate Britain’s cost of living crisis and heighten fears of recession. Goldman

The EU is preparing emergency measures to curb the price of electricity by separating it from the soaring cost of gas, as Shell warns the energy crisis could last for years, and utilities turn to the state for support. With member states stepping up pressure for action, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said

Tory leadership frontrunner Liz Truss on Sunday faced renewed pressure to outline her plans to tackle the cost of living crisis, as MPs called for increased support for households and small businesses grappling with rising energy bills. The foreign secretary, who has advocated for £30bn in tax reductions, is exploring VAT cuts of up to

The writer is chief executive of the Resolution Foundation think-tank Economic crises have phases you can almost feel. They ebb and they flow, as the nature and scale of the crisis, and our awareness of it, changes. Single events often crystallise a shift, forcing policymakers to wake up to the fact they are required to

The typical household gas and electricity bill in Britain will rise to £3,549 a year from October from £1,971 at present, the sector’s regulator confirmed on Friday, as consumers grapple with a cost of living crisis driven by soaring energy costs. Ofgem said the 80 per cent increase in the so-called price cap, which governs

Financial markets are betting the Bank of England will more than double interest rates by May next year as concern mounts about further rises in UK inflation. The shift in expectations in the swap market — which anticipates interest rates of 4 per cent in May compared with 1.75 per cent today — are among

Joe Biden’s administration will cancel $10,000 in student loan repayments for millions of Americans in a move that has pleased progressives but threatens to push up inflation. The US president will announce the decision on Wednesday, according to senior administration officials, after months of deliberations over the exact structure of the debt forgiveness scheme. Biden

A former Twitter security chief has claimed the social network misled US regulators over its cyber security defences and fake accounts, allegations that threaten to hamper the company’s legal effort to stop Elon Musk reneging on a $44bn buyout deal. Peiter Zatko, known in cyber security circles as “Mudge”, was fired by Twitter at the

Russia’s FSB security service has blamed Kyiv for the car bombing that killed the daughter of a prominent supporter of Vladimir Putin’s, accusing a Ukrainian woman of planting the car bomb before fleeing to Estonia. Nationalist commentator Daria Dugina, 29, was killed on Saturday when a bomb exploded under the driver’s seat of a vehicle

The daughter of a Russian ideologue, who is one of the most prominent supporters of President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, died in a car bombing outside Moscow on Saturday night. Russian investigators said Daria Dugina, a nationalist journalist and political analyst, died after the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving exploded outside Odintsovo, a

Some investors are warning of a mismatch between market expectations and the Federal Reserve’s stated commitment to stamping out inflation as traders stand by their wagers on interest rate cuts next year. Traders in the futures market are betting the central bank’s main interest rate will be cut to 3.3 per cent by the end

Investors are raising red flags over a stock market rally that has added more than $7tn in value to US equities since June, with many of the gains being driven by hedge funds unwinding bearish bets rather than newfound conviction that it is time to buy. Traders at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase

Turkey has shocked markets with a 100 basis point interest rate cut despite inflation of nearly 80 per cent, as the central bank loosens policy further to spur growth ahead of a general election next year. The bank had been expected to keep the rate at 14 per cent, which has already pushed real Turkish

The UK’s rate of inflation jumped to 10.1 per cent in July, the first time it has registered a double-digit annual increase in more than four decades. Consumer price inflation, driven by higher food prices, rose from 9.4 per cent in June to its highest level since February 1982. The double-digit rate exceeded economists’ expectations

Real levels of UK wages fell at the fastest rate for at least 20 years in the second quarter of this year, official figures showed on Tuesday in data that will provide little comfort that inflation is coming under control. Data from the Office for National Statistics showed that in the three months to June,

China has cut a crucial lending rate in an effort to shore up growth as the world’s second-biggest economy is buffeted by repeated Covid lockdowns and a worsening property crisis. The People’s Bank of China on Monday reduced its medium-term lending rate, for one-year loans to the banking system, by 10 basis points to 2.75

Saudi Aramco has broken its quarterly profit record set in May, as soaring energy prices driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine deliver windfalls to oil producers. But the state-controlled company’s chief executive warned that spare capacity remained limited as demand was increasing, with pandemic restrictions expected to ease in China, the world’s second-largest oil consumer.

The winner of the Conservative party leadership contest will face huge additional costs of servicing the nation’s debt and paying social security benefits as a result of rising inflation and interest rates, according to Financial Times calculations. The estimates, which are an update to the Bank of England’s previous official inflation forecast in March, show

UK prime minister Boris Johnson on Friday admitted that the government’s existing £37bn cost of living package may not be enough to support struggling households, as Liz Truss, the frontrunner to replace him, rejected calls for windfall taxes to limit the pain of rising energy bills. Johnson, who will leave office next month, said in

Soaring oil use for power generation in Europe and the Middle East will boost crude consumption for the rest of the year, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday, as it increased its global demand forecast despite signs of a wider economic slowdown. Paris-based IEA, which is primarily funded by OECD members, said record European

The US consumer price index rose by 8.5 per cent year-on-year in July, a slower annual increase compared to June, as inflationary pressures eased on the back of lower petrol prices. CPI data released on Wednesday showed no increase between June and July, compared to a 1.3 per cent monthly increase recorded a month ago.

Household energy bills in Britain are projected to peak at more than £4,420 a year on average next spring, posing a “fresh shock” for households already enduring a cost of living crisis. The energy consultancy Cornwall Insight on Tuesday raised its forecasts for Britain’s price cap following an announcement by the energy regulator Ofgem of

China has extended military drills around Taiwan, stoking fears of a drawn-out period of heightened tension that is piling pressure on the US to respond. Beijing’s largest-ever military exercises around Taiwan had been expected to wind down after navigation warnings for seven areas around the country expired early on Monday. But the People’s Liberation Army

Liz Truss has promised an immediate cut to National Insurance rates if she becomes prime minister in September, but faced claims from her Tory leadership rival Rishi Sunak that the change would “not touch the sides” for many poorer households battling a crisis in living costs. Truss, foreign secretary, told the Financial Times on Friday

Liz Truss, the Tory leadership frontrunner, has rejected “handouts” as the best way to help households through the worst income squeeze in 60 years, promising instead tax cuts and radical economic reform. Truss, in an interview with the Financial Times, defied the “abacus economics” of the Treasury, insisting she would press ahead with tax cuts