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UK inflation remained stuck at 8.7 per cent in May, higher than expectations of a drop to 8.4 per cent, marking the fourth month in a row that price rises have exceeded forecasts. With the cost of a broad range of goods and services rising sharply, the figures will reinforce expectations of multiple interest rate

6/19/2023, 9:53:28 PM What to watch in Asia today FT reporters China: The People’s Bank of China is scheduled to publish its latest policy rates. Analysts polled by Reuters expect lending benchmarks to be cut for the first time in 10 months amid a slowing post-Covid recovery. Last week the central bank unexpectedly cut a

Asking prices for UK homes flatlined in the past month as a “disorderly” mortgage market and rising borrowing costs dented confidence in the property sales.  New sellers listed their homes for £372,812 on average in the four weeks to June 10, £82 less than in the previous month, representing a marginal fallback after five months

Paradigm shifts happen slowly, and then all at once. This was the case during the last economic shift, in the Reagan-Thatcher era. Ronald Reagan wasn’t elected US president until 1980, but many of the speeches he gave during his 1976 Republican primary run set the stage for a new post-Keynesian era. In this, he argued,

Donald Trump indicted; Boris Johnson practically fleeing parliament; Silvio Berlusconi gone from the Italian stage he had dominated for decades. Pundits might be forgiven for declaring the death of populism alongside that of Berlusconi. Liberals are likely to feel confirmed in their view that populism always ends not only in policy failure — since populists

Gilt yields surged to the highest since 2008, surpassing the level reached during the turmoil following Liz Truss’s mini Budget, after strong UK wage growth data on Tuesday. Wage growth accelerated in the three months to April against a backdrop of rising employment, raising the likelihood of further interest rate rises. Two-year gilt yields rose

Rishi Sunak has finally approved Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list, which includes appointments for Tory MPs and a senior official who worked in Downing Street during the partygate scandal. The former prime minister nominated several senior Conservative MPs who are his allies. Jacob Rees-Mogg, Conor Burns, and Simon Clarke were knighted, while Priti Patel and

Donald Trump said on Thursday evening that he had been indicted on federal charges in connection with classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, the latest legal woe to hit the former US president as he mounts another White House run. “The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been

Adobe’s chief executive has argued that a regulatory environment that prevents tech acquisitions will lead to less investment in start-ups, in a stark warning to competition authorities investigating the company’s proposed $20bn takeover of design software company Figma. Shantanu Narayen told the Financial Times antitrust watchdogs should “worry about” how their decisions on dealmaking “enable

UK hopes of securing a quick deal to deepen digital trade ties with the US have run into the diplomatic sands amid growing resistance to such pacts in Washington, technology industry insiders have warned. The sector’s frustrations emerged as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak landed in Washington for a meeting with President Joe Biden at which

The Kakhovka dam spanning the Dnipro river in southern Ukraine was blown up on Tuesday, flooding swaths of territory ahead of an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive and threatening crucial water supplies to a nuclear plant. Russia and Ukraine blamed each other for the attack, which Kyiv warned would have “catastrophic consequences” and affect dozens of settlements,

Labour is set to receive a £5mn financial boost from the former boss of a car glass repair company to help it fight the next election, in an indication that the UK’s main opposition party is proving successful at wooing new donors. Gary Lubner, who made hundreds of millions of pounds running the company behind

China has warned western militaries to stay out of waters and airspace near its borders if they want to avoid dangerous run-ins with the People’s Liberation Army, putting on display the growing risks of unintended conflict as geopolitical competition grows. The blunt message from General Li Shangfu, China’s new defence minister, followed a near collision

CIA director Bill Burns travelled to China last month, a clandestine visit by one of President Joe Biden’s most trusted officials that signals how concerned the White House had become about deteriorating relations between Beijing and Washington. Five people familiar with the situation said Burns, a former top diplomat who is frequently entrusted with delicate

A bill to raise the debt ceiling cleared a significant hurdle on Wednesday afternoon, after Democratic lawmakers supported Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy and allowed the bipartisan deal to advance to a full vote. In order to see off a rebellion from members from his own party, McCarthy was forced to rely on

South Korea erroneously sent a warning to residents of Seoul to take shelter after North Korea fired a projectile Wednesday morning, just days after signalling its intention to launch its first military reconnaissance satellite. Japan also issued a missile alert for the southern island of Okinawa, but it was quickly lifted after the projectile, which

Chinese stocks in Hong Kong fell into bear market territory amid mounting doubts about the outlook for the world’s second-largest economy and rising tensions between Washington and Beijing Declines for the Hang Seng China Enterprises index during Asian trading on Tuesday pushed it 20 per cent lower from its peak in January, placing it in

After claiming victory in Sunday’s presidential election run-off, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said “Turkey was the only winner” as he addressed jubilant supporters. Yet while the veteran president’s loyalists celebrate, millions of other Turks will be hanging their heads in dismay, agonising over what another five years of the strongman’s rule means for their polarised country.

Joe Biden tried to make the best of the fiscal truce he negotiated with Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy late on Saturday, designed to prevent a potentially devastating default on US debt in little more than a week. “The agreement represents a compromise, which means not everyone gets what they want,” the US president said.

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