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Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has rejected claims from Conservative MPs that the UK’s central bank acted too slowly to tackle surging inflation and defended its operational independence and mandate. Asked on Friday about whether he would remain in post no matter what changes were implemented by the successor to outgoing prime minister Boris

Britain faces a protracted recession and the worst squeeze on living standards in more than 60 years, the Bank of England warned on Thursday, as it raised interest rates to their highest level since the onset of the global financial crisis. Eight of the Monetary Policy Committee’s nine members voted to raise interest rates by

Bain & Co, the Boston-based global management consultant, was on Tuesday hit with a three-year ban from tendering for British government contracts because of its “grave professional misconduct” in a major corruption scandal in South Africa. Jacob Rees-Mogg, Cabinet Office minister, told Bain that the affair had rendered the company’s integrity “questionable” and that he

China is ratcheting up military activity around Taiwan ahead of a potential visit by Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, who is expected to land in Taipei on Tuesday night. The Taiwanese government also said it had come under cyber attack. Several Chinese fighter jets flew close to the median line

A grain shipment has left the port of Odesa for the first time in months, in a crucial test of a deal between Russia and Ukraine intended to alleviate soaring global food prices. The Sierra Leone-flagged Razoni, carrying 26,000 tonnes of Ukrainian corn, left the Black Sea Port at 9:48am local time, the ministry of

Foreign investors have pulled funds out of emerging markets for five straight months in the longest streak of withdrawals on record, highlighting how recession fears and rising interest rates are shaking developing economies. Cross-border outflows by international investors in EM stocks and domestic bonds reached $10.5bn this month according to provisional data compiled by the

Thousands of British companies are cutting economic ties with China en masse, threatening to heap more pressure on the cost of living, the head of the CBI business group has warned. Tony Danker, the CBI director-general, said chief executives were increasingly switching business links from China to other countries in anticipation of a further deterioration

Global stocks were on track to post their best month since late 2020, bouncing back from a savage first half of 2022 as easing rate rise expectations and upbeat earnings from big tech groups fuelled a broad rally. The FTSE All-World index of developed and emerging market shares has jumped 5.8 per cent in July,

British Gas owner Centrica has called on the UK government to provide more support for households hammered during the energy crisis even as it reinstated its dividend for the first time since 2020 and profits surged fivefold. Chris O’Shea, chief executive, warned that the UK was “facing what is likely to be a difficult winter” with

European gas prices jumped further on Wednesday after Russia followed through on its threat to make further cuts in gas supplies to the region. Gas prices rose 12 per cent early on Wednesday and have risen by more than a third this week from already extremely elevated levels as Europe struggles to fill gas storage

Unilever has increased prices for its products by 11 per cent and raised its full-year sales guidance, as it battles to pass on cost increases to consumers tempted by cheaper alternatives. The consumer goods maker said it had yet to pass on the full impact of cost rises to shoppers in what chief financial officer

Satellite operator Eutelsat has confirmed it is in discussions to acquire smaller participant OneWeb over an all-share deal that seeks to help the France and UK-based groups better compete with US rivals. Eutelsat’s share price fell more than 17 per cent to €8.60 in early trading after the statement on Monday as investors balked at

China is preparing a system to sort US-listed Chinese companies into groups based on the sensitivity of the data they hold, in a potential concession by Beijing to try to stop American regulators from delisting hundreds of groups. The system is designed to bring some Chinese companies into compliance with US rules that require public

Volkswagen’s chief executive Herbert Diess, the architect of the German carmaker’s multibillion-euro push into electric vehicles, will leave the company within weeks after being forced out by union leaders and shareholders. The 63-year-old, who took over in the years following the VW emissions scandal, will be replaced by Porsche chief executive and former VW manager

The owner of the UK’s largest steelworks, Tata Group, has threatened to shut down operations if the government does not agree in the next year to provide £1.5bn of subsidies to help it reduce carbon emissions. Tata Steel UK runs the Port Talbot plant and employs nearly 8,000 people across all its operations. As one

Italian prime minister Mario Draghi has resigned, ending a national unity government formed to tackle unpopular reforms and spelling trouble for Europe at a time of acute economic challenges. In a statement, President Sergio Mattarella’s office on Thursday said that Draghi would remain in charge of current affairs. Mattarella is now expected to dissolve parliament

The rate of UK inflation rose to a fresh 40-year high of 9.4 per cent in June as sharp rises in food and petrol prices drove the rate towards double digits for the first time since 1982. The UK’s rate was again the highest among the G7 group of large advanced economies even before recent

UK private sector pay grew almost five times as fast as public sector workers’ remuneration in the year to May, according to official data released as ministers prepare to sign off on real term wage cuts for teachers, doctors and NHS staff. The figures, showing total pay growth of 7.2 per cent in the private

A government plan to deregulate the City of London and foster a post-Brexit ‘Big Bang’ will trigger a battle this week with the Bank of England, which is seeking to defend high standards and its regulatory autonomy. A radical Financial Services bill, drawn up by former chancellor and Tory leadership contender Rishi Sunak, will be

A string of big rate rises by the Federal Reserve has put pressure on central banks around the world to follow suit to counter soaring inflation and the strong dollar. A Financial Times analysis found that central banks are now, more than at any other time this century, opting for large rate rises of 50

The dramatic spikes in oil and mineral prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have distracted investors from the long-lasting and more dangerous impact of food inflation, BlackRock founder Larry Fink has warned. “The one thing I worry about that we don’t talk enough about is food,” he told the Financial Times. “This isn’t just an

Lord Zac Goldsmith, a prominent voice on environmental issues in Boris Johnson’s cabinet, warned this week that the Conservatives would be “digging our electoral grave” if they elected a new leader that was prepared to abandon the UK’s net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Johnson, who presided over the COP26 international climate talks in Glasgow

Liz Truss’s bid to become prime minister has received a much-needed boost after leading Eurosceptics, including the attorney-general Suella Braverman, backed her campaign. Truss also won the support of Braverman-backer Steve Baker, the former Brexit minister, and Lord David Frost, who delivered a scathing attack on Truss’s rival Penny Mordaunt, the trade minister, in the

At the risk of sounding like a newlywed presenting my spouse with a list of pointers for improvement, these once-miraculous Covid vaccines could do better. It wasn’t long ago that I celebrated the anniversary of being fully vaccinated, but that first flush of immunity started to wane very quickly. I’ve even been flirting with some

Ivana Trump, the first wife of the former president and a partner in shaping his gilded and larger-than-life persona in 1980s New York City, has died at the age of 73. Trump was born in the former Czechoslovakia, and became a competitive skier and model. In addition to raising the former president’s three older children,

The dollar was on track to notch up its third week of sharp gains as weak Chinese economic data compounded fears about a global recession. The dollar index, which measures the currency against six others, slipped 0.1 per cent lower on Friday but remained around a 20-year high — taking it up 1.3 per cent

The Great Moderation is dead, and the obituaries are now rolling in. The past 30 years or so may not have felt like the best of times for investors. The financial crisis of 2008 was no fun, for instance, and even the Greek debt crisis tested nerves, to take just a couple of recent blow-ups.

Chinese regulators are trying to stamp out panic over rising home loan risks at banks as a wave of homeowners join a country-wide mortgage boycott of unfinished houses. Hundreds of thousands of buyers have halted mortgage payments on more than 200 unfinished property projects in China this week, aggravating a property sector crisis that has

George Orwell said that Britain was a family with the wrong members in control. At times over the past six years, it has resembled a family on the brink of divorce. Arguments over history, race, gender and symbols have boiled over. The number of UK newspaper articles referring to a “culture war” rose from 21

China’s economy narrowly escaped a contraction in the second quarter as the fallout from President Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid policy stoked expectations that Beijing would inject hundreds of billions of dollars of stimulus to shore up growth. The world’s second-biggest economy expanded 0.4 per cent year on year in the three months to the end of