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.
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UK unemployment fell to its lowest level in nearly half a century in the first quarter of 2022, with almost a million people switching jobs as the number of vacancies rose to a new high of 1.3mn. The Office for National Statistics said the jobless rate stood at 3.7 per cent in the three months
China’s economic activity contracted sharply in April as a wave of lockdowns across the country posed the most significant challenge to its growth prospects since Covid-19 emerged over two years ago. Retail sales, the country’s main gauge of consumer activity which had already entered contraction in March, slumped 11.1 per cent year on year, compared
Saudi Aramco has reported $39.5bn in earnings in the first quarter of 2022, up 82 per cent year on year due to the surge in global energy prices as a consequence of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Aramco — which last week overtook Apple as the world’s most valuable company — declared that it would pay
Global stocks rose on Friday but were on track for their longest streak of weekly losses since the 2008 financial crisis, as fears over inflation and an economic slowdown continued to stalk markets. The FTSE All World index, which is on track for a 3.9 per cent fall this week in its sixth straight week
The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund has attacked “corporate greed” and excessive pay for “mediocre performance” and vowed to take action against the worst offenders. Nicolai Tangen, chief executive of Norway’s $1.2tn oil fund, told the Financial Times that it would in particular target large salary packages that were not justified by performance, or were
The UK economy unexpectedly contracted in March for the first time this year, driven in particular by services and manufacturing, as households brace themselves for a tighter cost of living squeeze. Gross domestic product declined 0.1 per cent between February and March, data published by the Office for National Statistics showed on Thursday, below the
Elon Musk has said he would reverse Donald Trump’s ban from Twitter, accusing the social media company of leftwing bias that had aggravated political divisions in the US. “I think it was a morally bad decision, and foolish in the extreme,” Musk said of the lifetime ban of Trump, which was imposed soon after a
A global equity sell-off hit Asian markets on Tuesday after the steepest one-day fall on Wall Street since 2020 as investors worried about a slowdown in the world’s largest economies. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index slid 2.8 per cent in afternoon trading after a one-day holiday. Chinese technology groups listed in the territory recorded some
EU capitals should consider seizing frozen Russian foreign exchange reserves to help pay for the cost of rebuilding Ukraine after the war, the bloc’s top diplomat has said, as the west debates how to force Moscow to pay for some of the damage the conflict has caused. Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign
A jubilant Sinn Féin was poised to clinch a historic victory in Northern Ireland’s elections and become the region’s biggest political force for the first time in a century, after more than half the seats to the Stormont assembly were decided. Sinn Féin, the party long associated with the paramilitary IRA, was clearly ahead of
It could have been worse. That will no doubt be the conclusion of Conservative strategists, and many of the party’s MPs, after Thursday’s local elections. Losing the longtime strongholds of Westminster and Wandsworth will sting but elsewhere, the losses — though they steadily worsened as Friday went on — seemed not of sufficient magnitude to
Boris Johnson will face renewed pressure on his leadership on Friday after the Conservatives suffered significant defeats in local elections across the UK, including losing the flagship London council of Wandsworth. Labour won the borough beloved of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher for its ultra-low local tax rates after 44 years in Tory hands, but
The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark policy rate by half a percentage point for the first time since 2000 and sent a strong signal that it intends to increase it by the same amount at the next two meetings. At the end of its two-day policy meeting on Wednesday, the Federal Open Market Committee lifted
China’s independent refiners have been discreetly buying Russian oil at steep discounts as western countries suspend their own purchases and explore potential embargoes because of the war in Ukraine. An official at a Shandong-based independent refinery said it had not publicly reported deals with Russian oil suppliers since the Ukraine war started in order to
The UK is to commit another £300mn of military aid to Ukraine, Downing Street announced on Monday, as Boris Johnson, prime minister, prepared to become the first western leader to address its parliament since Russia’s invasion. Johnson will make a speech to the Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday via video link, and is due to say
The German government has said it backs a phased-in ban on Russian oil imports into the EU, as officials in Brussels try to seek consensus on an embargo as part of the latest package of sanctions against Moscow. Jörg Kukies, one of chancellor Olaf Scholz’s closest advisers, said Berlin was in favour of an oil
Chinese regulators have held an emergency meeting with domestic and foreign banks to discuss how they could protect the country’s overseas assets from US-led sanctions similar to those imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, according to people familiar with the discussion. Officials are worried the same measures could be taken against Beijing in
European shares and the euro followed Asian markets higher on Friday, after Chinese authorities pledged to safeguard the world’s second-largest economy from coronavirus lockdowns, lifting sentiment following disappointing economic growth data. The regional Stoxx 600 share index added 1 per cent, after strong gains in Asia. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed 4 per cent
Apple’s services division posted record revenue in the quarter to March, pushing the company’s overall sales well beyond analysts’ expectations as it navigated supply chains issues and the highest inflation rate in decades. Revenues rose 9 per cent from a year ago to $97.3bn, versus the $94.1bn expected by analysts. Net profits jumped 6 per