INSIDER
Official figures show that the British economy, the world’s sixth-largest, enjoyed a growth spurt in February, the month before U.S. President Donald Trump started to roll out tariffs on imported goods.
The Bank of England has kept its main U.K. interest rate unchanged at 4.50% even though the economy is barely growing and the nation faces more uncertainty in light of the tariff policies being enacted by the Trump administration in the U.S. The decision by the nine-member Monetary Policy Committee on Thursday was widely expected, and comes a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve also kept interest rates unchanged.
The British economy unexpectedly shrank during January, piling pressure on Treasury chief Rachel Reeves before a key statement about the state of the public finances later this month.
The British economy managed to eke out quarterly growth of 0.1% in the final quarter of 2024 following a stronger than anticipated performance in December.
The Bank of England halved its growth projection for the British economy this year as it cut its main interest rate for the third time in six months.
U.K. Treasury chief Rachel Reeves says that the new Labour government is backing the construction of third runway at London’s Heathrow Airport.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will not attend President-elect Donald Trump’s swearing-in ceremony, but he is sending Vice President Han Zheng as his special representative.
Britain’s new government, which is already facing anger over higher taxes, unpopular spending decisions and political scandals just six months after taking office, is now being battered by rising borrowing costs that threaten to derail its left-leaning program.
Inflation in the U.K. unexpectedly fell in December, a move that will likely fuel pressure on the Bank of England to cut interest rates again next month.
China and Britain have restarted economic and financial talks after a six-year hiatus during a visit by Britain’s Treasury chief to Beijing.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he has no plan to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin as he said support for Ukraine was the U.K.’s top priority at this week’s G20 summit.
British Treasury chief Rachel Reeves says the government plans to merge dozens of pension funds with the aim of unlocking tens of billions of pounds for investment and boosting the U.K.’s sub-par economic growth.
Worries about this week’s tax-raising U.K. budget within financial markets appear to have eased with the interest rates charged on British debt steadying and the pound rising against most other currencies.
U.K. Treasury chief Rachel Reeves has conceded that wages may rise by less than previously thought as a direct result of her budget decision to increase a tax that businesses pay for their employees.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says fixing Britain’s troubled economy will be a long haul in a “harsh” fiscal environment.
Inflation in the U.K. has fallen to its lowest level in more than three years, a drop that has cemented market expectations that the Bank of England will lower interest rates at its next policy meeting.
British Treasury chief Rachel Reeves has promised not to return to an era of public spending cuts despite the dire state of the U.K.’s national finances.
Britain’s new Labour government has axed several construction projects and withdrawn a winter fuel payment for millions of retirees to cover what it calls a newly found 22-billion-pound ($28 billion) shortfall in the public finances.
Britain’s new left-leaning government says the nation is “broke and broken,” blaming the situation on its predecessors ahead of a major speech on the state of the public finances that is widely expected to lay the groundwork for higher taxes.
Britain’s new Treasury chief says she will run the economy with “iron discipline.”.
Inflation in the U.K. has returned to the Bank of England’s target rate of 2% for the first time in nearly three years.
Leading British economic think tanks are warning that whoever wins the country’s general election this year will face some very tough choices on tax and spending if they want to make sure the public finances don’t deteriorate further.
The British economy fell into recession at the end of 2023 as output shrank more than anticipated in the final three months of the year.
