UK inflation remained in double digits in March with annual price rises of 10.1 per cent, raising the chances of further interest rate rises from the Bank of England. Consumer price inflation had been 10.4 per cent in February and was expected to drop to 9.8 per cent last month. Although petrol and diesel prices
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China is starting to target western interests in the country after five years of snowballing trade and technology restrictions spearheaded by the US under presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Over the past two months, Chinese officials have slapped new sanctions on US weapons companies Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, launched an investigation into US chipmaker
The head of the IMF’s Africa department has called for a significant increase in international support to help countries overcome a funding squeeze that is jeopardising the continent’s economic development. Abebe Selassie told the Financial Times that reform of the current mechanisms for dealing with unsustainable debts of African countries was “desperately needed”. “Do we
The writer is executive director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies Asia, and author of ‘The Billionaire Raj’ Two recent Beijing trips by global leaders have shed light on the many paradoxes of a future age of economic decoupling. A visit by Emmanuel Macron, president of France, and Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission
It was nearly a decade ago when Intel, then the undisputed leader in global semiconductor manufacturing, made a fateful decision. A new technology, extreme lithography, was offering a way to pack more computing power on to the silicon wafers from which tiny chips, essential for widely used products like smartphones and PCs, are cut. Using
European stocks inched higher and Wall Street futures were steady on Wednesday ahead of closely watched US inflation data that will heavily influence the Federal Reserve’s next interest rate decision. The region-wide Stoxx Europe 600 opened 0.1 per cent higher. Germany’s Dax and London’s FTSE 100 both gained 0.2 per cent. Contracts tracking Wall Street’s
Will Japan abandon its ultra-loose monetary policies now that Kazuo Ueda has replaced Haruhiko Kuroda as governor of the Bank of Japan? The answer, it seems, is “no”. The new governor, a well-known and respected academic economist, stressed that the two pillars of Japan’s current monetary policy — negative interest rates and yield curve control
US president Joe Biden is set to arrive in Belfast on Tuesday night to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement as London urged the region’s biggest unionist party to end its boycott of Northern Ireland’s political institutions. Biden’s visit, which will be followed by a longer trip to the Republic of Ireland,
In the west, the job of government is to prop up wobbly banks. In China, the role of government is seemingly to destabilise lenders. US and European bank bosses, at worst, face losing their jobs. In China, they may lose their liberty too. The Chinese authorities escalated their attack on Wednesday with a probe into
The majority of developing economies had less foreign exchange reserves at the end of 2022 than they did at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to fDi Markets analysis of central bank data from 75 countries collected via Haver Analytics. Import cover ratios — a standard comparable measure of foreign exchange reserves — fell
Signs the US labour market is cooling have raised hopes that the worst inflation problem in decades is improving, but economists warn further action is still needed from the Federal Reserve to fully contain price pressures. Data released on Friday bolstered the view that the world’s largest economy, while still resilient, is gradually losing some
Israeli fighter jets bombed the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Friday, amid a sharp escalation of violence after militants in Lebanon and Gaza fired a volley of rockets at Israel. The Israeli military said that it had hit four targets — including two weapons manufacturing sites and two tunnels — belonging to the
Kyiv is willing to discuss the future of Crimea with Moscow if its forces reach the border of the Russian-occupied peninsula, a top adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told the Financial Times. The comments by Andriy Sybiha, deputy head of Zelenskyy’s office, are the most explicit statement of Ukraine’s interest in negotiations since it
Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney bringing the case against Donald Trump, accused the former president of masterminding an expansive scheme to suppress damaging stories that could have threatened his candidacy in the 2016 presidential election campaign. This included arranging a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, made 12 days before Trump took
Russia’s security services are confiscating the passports of senior officials and state company executives to prevent overseas travel, as paranoia over leaks and defections spreads through Vladimir Putin’s regime. With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine still raging, security officers have tightened up travel requirements within the state sector, demanding the surrender of travel documents from some
Credit Suisse is bracing for a tumultuous annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday, when protesters are expected to vent their anger at the implosion of one of Switzerland’s historic financial institutions. The meeting will take place at a 15,000-capacity ice hockey stadium in the Zurich suburb of Oerlikon. It will be the bank’s first in-person AGM
Donald Trump will turn himself in to New York prosecutors on Tuesday, his lawyer said, insisting the former president would “not be put in handcuffs”. Joe Tacopina added he expected the charges — the first criminal indictment in history of an ex-US president — to relate to payments to buy the silence of porn actress
Donald Trump has been indicted following a years-long investigation by Manhattan prosecutors that has led to the first criminal charges against a former US president in the country’s history, according to his lawyers. “President Trump has been indicted. He did not commit any crime. We will vigorously fight this political prosecution in court,” his lawyers
Switzerland’s private banks are seeking to poach key staff and clients from Credit Suisse as steep job and bonus cuts force bankers into the market following the takeover by UBS. Julius Baer, Pictet, Lombard Odier, EFG and LGT are among Swiss wealth managers sounding out disgruntled Credit Suisse bankers, people familiar with ongoing conversations have
China has significantly expanded its bailout lending as its Belt and Road Initiative blows up following a series of debt write-offs, scandal-ridden projects and allegations of corruption. A study published on Tuesday shows China granted $104bn worth of rescue loans to developing countries between 2019 and the end of 2021. The figure for these years