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After the sharpest tightening in monetary policy for 35 years, UK interest rates may finally be close to a peak. That was the message on Thursday from Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey, as he set out forecasts for inflation to inch back to the central bank’s target against a backdrop of near-stagnant economic growth.

Ahead of the Bank of England’s 14th consecutive rate rise since 2021 on Thursday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claimed “there is light at the end of the tunnel” on Britain’s inflation fight. After justifiable criticism of the bank for falling behind the curve — with the UK’s high inflation making it an outlier in the

A lucrative age for private equity buyouts has ended, prompting an abrupt shift in the $4tn industry where returns will no longer be fuelled by rising valuations, the chief executive of Apollo Global Management warned on Thursday. “In the [private] equity business, this year has really marked the end of an era,” said Marc Rowan,

If you were looking for a sign that the tech start-up world has shaken off the growth-at-all-costs mindset that typified the last decade, Uber reporting a profit this week for the first time might fit the bill. The US ride-hailing company was emblematic of Silicon Valley’s ugly side during the boom years of the 2010s.

Sometimes the gods of finance deliver choreography that might make future historians chuckle. This week in America provided one such moment. On Tuesday, the special counsel Jack Smith announced a blistering new indictment against former US president Donald Trump for allegedly launching “an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy”. And on the very

A senior European Central Bank policymaker has said it can achieve its objective of bringing down inflation by committing to keep interest rates stable for longer, rather than raising them and risk crashing the economy. Fabio Panetta, an ECB executive board member, said persistence in keeping rates at current levels “for an extended period” could

Stocks continued to slide on Thursday following Wall Street’s biggest one-day drop since April, as investors prepared for the latest rise in interest rates from the Bank of England. The Stoxx Europe 600 was down 0.6 per cent in early trade, on course for a third successive session of declines. The index has lost nearly

Moravec’s paradox, an observation much loved by technologists, suggests that robots do well what humans do badly and vice versa. So, for example, a computer can easily trounce the strongest human players at chess. But that same machine could not move the pieces on the board, a trivial task for a five-year-old child.  A similar

Pity the UK. Sure, inflation is slowing there as well, but from higher level and far more slowly than in most other countries. Here’s a Goldman Sachs chart showing just how much global price pressures have abated this year (and how its economists expect them to continue to ease): And here is 2023 broken down

The writer is author of ‘Black Wave’ Europe is helping to entrench Arab autocrats by asking them to stem the flow of refugees across the Mediterranean, with no regard for their governance or human rights record. They, in turn, are only too happy to pose as partners, claiming they alone can protect Europe’s southern border from

When a memo landed in Goldman Sachs inboxes earlier this year announcing that Mike Koester was leaving the firm, there were audible gasps at the bank’s headquarters in lower Manhattan.  The departure of the 25-year Goldman veteran, co-president of the group’s alternative investments business, stunned staff, with one employee describing Koester as a “beloved” figure

Britain’s semiconductor industry must focus on niche manufacturing and designs rather than seek to challenge international rivals in chipmaking, according to the UK’s tech minister, who admitted that “we are not going to recreate Taiwan in south Wales”. Paul Scully, who leads the government’s digital economy strategy, told the Financial Times that the UK will

Leo Varadkar has acknowledged that Ireland must better defend its waters from potential Russian sabotage, but denied claims that the country’s longstanding military neutrality meant it was freeloading off its strategic partners. Russian ships were spotted close to Ireland’s north-west and south-west coastline earlier this year, sparking fears they could be mapping and monitoring international

Your browser does not support playing this file but you can still download the MP3 file to play locally. Donald Trump was indicted this week on charges related to his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. But the former president is also in the running for the 2024 presidential election and

It was a crisp September day in 2015 when Timothy Young arrived at Houten, an unremarkable Dutch commuter town, determined to collect an almost 400-year-old debt. He carried a case containing a fragile piece of goatskin covered in dense writing and numbers. It was a bond, issued in 1648 by a group of Dutch landowners,

The Bank of England could slow the pace of interest rate rises when it announces its latest decision on Thursday, but investors expect the central bank to continue tightening monetary policy for longer than either the European Central Bank or the US Federal Reserve. After UK inflation fell more than expected in June, traders think

It is not often that Goldman Sachs refers to the capricious, cleanliness-obsessed Japanese kawayakami toilet gods in its equity research. It is rarer still that it cites the propitiation of these deities while making the investment case for a Chinese bathroom fittings company.  But when it comes to pitching Shenzhen-listed stocks to nervous, anywhere-but-China global

Occidental Petroleum has become the latest oil producer to report a hefty decline in earnings as commodity prices, which soared in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, receded to normal levels. The company, which in 2022 was the best performer on the S&P 500, posted net income of $605mn for the second quarter, down

UK ministers are set to announce a further delay to post-Brexit border controls on animal and plant products coming from the EU, amid fears that extra bureaucracy on imported goods will fuel inflation. The decision to delay the new import regime at Britain’s ports, which had been due to start in October, is also intended

Grant Shapps, the UK energy secretary, has reassured industry leaders that the government remains “absolutely committed” to hitting its net zero carbon targets by 2050, in spite of recent controversy over its intentions. Shapps told bosses of energy companies at a summit in Downing Street on Wednesday that he wanted them to invest in renewables

Donald Trump did not act alone: that was one takeaway from special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment charging the former US president with attempting to frustrate the peaceful transition of power following his election loss in 2020. Six alleged accomplices were identified as “co-conspirators” by the US Department of Justice, including four of Trump’s attorneys. None