British retail sales grew more than expected in April, rebounding after bad weather hit spending in March and helped by increased government benefits. The quantity of goods bought in Britain rose 0.5 per cent between March and April, in part reversing the sharp contraction in the previous month, according to data published on Friday by
News
The writer is a retired RAF Air Marshal who was formerly director-general of Joint Force Development at the UK Ministry of Defence Many have questioned why President Volodymyr Zelenskyy so determinedly pressed for the supply of F-16 fighter planes to his forces in Ukraine. Can one particular aircraft can make such a difference? The answer,
For Ben and Pamela Thomas, the decision over whether to buy an electric car was decided by a stray roof tile. When a storm dislodged the ceramic projectile that wrote off their trusty VW Polo, they began the search for a new model, and were keen to try their first electric vehicle. Yet more than
Before Scotland’s 2014 independence referendum, David Henry’s interest in politics rarely extended beyond following it on TV. But the campaign — despite failing by 45-55 per cent — captivated the London-based television production company executive and he became an activist for the Scottish National party. “I joined the SNP a day after the referendum in
London is the European stock exchange most at risk of suffering big departures to the US, according to a ranking compiled by the Financial Times identifying large companies with the strongest business case to consider a New York listing. The FT assessed 111 European companies, each with a market capitalisation of at least $10bn and
When British supermarket giant Tesco withdrew from the US in 2013 just six years after opening its first Fresh & Easy store, it was criticised for failing to appreciate important differences in how Americans and Brits do their grocery shopping. On the evidence of last week, a similar charge could be levelled at the American
President Joe Biden and Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy have moved closer to a two-year deal to limit government spending and avert a US debt default, raising hopes of an end to the fiscal stand-off in the world’s largest economy. People familiar with the potential agreement said that negotiators were looking to finalise the agreement
Shares in Bunge, the world’s largest oilseed processor, jumped as much as 5 per cent on Thursday after reports of preliminary deal talks with Glencore-backed grain trader Viterra. A potential merger, which was first reported by Bloomberg, would create an agribusiness powerhouse rivalling Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland. St Louis-based Bunge, which generated $1.6bn in
UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt has told drugmakers that the government has no “magic wand” to deal with financial pressures and was unlikely to give into industry demands to pay a significantly higher price for medicines. The government will on Friday unveil reforms worth £650mn to boost the life sciences sector as part of a wider
Ministers are considering a sweeping reform to the fund that protects savers in company pension plans that could turn it into a vehicle able to invest tens of billions of pounds in UK businesses. Proposals before ministers could see the government-backed Pension Protection Fund, which has £39bn in pension assets, given an extended remit to
UK retail investors have been piling into gilts and other fixed-income products in search of higher returns and lower risk despite a sharp sell-off in gilts, according to investment platform AJ Bell. Michael Summersgill, who took over as AJ Bell’s chief executive last October, said that customers on the platform had increased their investments in
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak sought to reassure the public he had a grip on migration after official figures on Thursday showed net long-term arrivals in the UK reached an all-time high of 606,000 in 2022. But the Office for National Statistics’ figures suggest measures announced this week to stop overseas students bringing family members with
Often in politics, a bad idea turns up when its time has finally come. The current contender in the UK is the belief that a few tweaks to pension rules will flood dynamic companies with much-needed funds, save the troubled stock market, improve returns for future pensioners and resolve the longstanding weakness in business investment.
Nvidia’s blowout earnings have set the Silicon Valley company on course to become the first chipmaker to be valued at more than $1tn, as booming demand for its artificial intelligence processors drove semiconductor stocks higher on Thursday. Shares in Nvidia were up 25 per cent in pre-market trading after its $11bn sales forecast for the
While the Russian ship Lady R docked at the South African port Simon’s Town last December, it was loaded with arms intended to kill Ukrainians, says the US. For Europeans, the news was as baffling and upsetting as India guzzling Russian oil, or Brazil’s president Lula blaming Russia and Ukraine equally for the war. We’re right
Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Speaker of the House, has a tendency to liken himself to Babe Ruth, the American baseball legend. In a speech at the New York Stock Exchange last month, he quoted the sports hero, saying: “You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.” McCarthy, 58, made history in January when
Blowout earnings from chipmaker Nvidia helped push US stock futures higher on Thursday, after global markets had fallen in recent days on concerns about the possibility of US government default. Contracts tracking Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 rose 0.6 per cent and those tracking the Nasdaq 100 rose 2 per cent ahead of the New
Net immigration to the UK rose to a record high of 606,000 in 2022, driven by rising numbers of people from outside the EU, including from Ukraine and Hong Kong. The figures fell short of estimates of about 700,000 but remain far above the Conservative government’s 2010 pledge to reduce net immigration to the “tens
Good morning. Sometimes the obvious conclusion is the right one. The UK’s persistently high inflation is bad news for households, bad news for businesses and as a result it is bad news for the government’s hopes of getting re-elected. But some things are less obvious: just in this morning, the UK’s record net migration figure
Artificial intelligence is more of an opportunity than a threat for creative industries, the head of Europe’s biggest media group has said in defiance of warnings about the dangers of generative AI. Thomas Rabe, chief executive of the German business that owns the book publisher Penguin Random House and the music label BMG, said that
Turkey’s presidential election run-off takes place this Sunday with the incumbent, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, likely to win the election. He has not left victory to chance, practising monetary and regulatory manipulation right up to polling day to delay an all-too-possible financial crisis till after his return to office. Erdoğan has subverted monetary policy for more