Scores in the US say they're grappling with raised mortgage and loan interest rates and exploding insurance premiumsI bought my home in a hurry in 2020," said Meg, 60, an office manager from Maryland. It was less expensive to take on a mortgage than to keep paying ever-increasing rents for my college-student daughter and me."Now housing costs consume 50% of her income. Continue reading...
by Damian Carrington Environment editor on (#6VFQ3)
Green sector growing at triple the rate of the UK economy, providing high-wage jobs and increasing energy securityThe net zero sector is growing three times faster than the overall UK economy, analysis has found, providing high-wage jobs across the country while cutting climate-heating emissions and increasing energy security.The net zero economy grew by 10% in 2024 and generated 83bn in gross value added (GVA), a measure of how much value companies add through the goods and services they produce. Continue reading...
US consumer debt is high and rising but 16 cents on every dollar spent by the government is now going to interestA recent report from the Federal Reserve warned that consumer debt is now more than $18tn and the people are worried. Americans' credit card and household debt reach all-time high", reports Fox News. Consumers are finding it harder and harder to pay off their debt", claims CNN. A third of Americans have more credit card debt than emergency savings", says Marketplace.Yes, consumer debt has ticked up this year. It's true that some consumer debt - particularly student loans - has soared in the past few years. But - although worrisome - this debt is still being used to fund education and skills. Other consumer debts are being used to buy homes and cars and fund the purchases that make life livable, not to mention the many industries that rely on this spending. Continue reading...
Bucket-loads of political capital and cash will be used to reconfigure English councils' two-tier set-up, but the benefits could be hugeAcross England a quiet rebellion is brewing. In Rutland, locals have started a campaign to save the tiny county from abolition. Villagers in High Peak, rural Derbyshire, worry they could be bundled in with Andy Burnham's Greater Manchester. Nottingham is expanding, Medway wants to become a city, and Surrey will have a mayor.Flick through your local newspaper (if one still exists), or fight past the online pop-ups and chances are there will be a story about Labour's plans for the biggest shake-up of local government since the 1970s. Continue reading...
There is political agreement that Britain and Europe need to increase military spending. But in straitened times, how can it be done?Can Britain increase defence spending without cuts elsewhere?
As China's cheap prices continue to dominate western markets, attempts to revive or invent UK brands has never been tougherBritons might never again get the chance to buy an electric kettle made in the UK. Even a 150 kettle from Dualit, the company most famous for making its celebrated toaster in Crawley, West Sussex, is produced by Chinese workers 5,000 miles away.Most consumers think the whereabouts of the factory or assembly plant riveting their latest purchase together is irrelevant, but those who do want it to be produced locally do not have a choice. Continue reading...
All three major stock indexes moved decisively lower, extending sell-off in wake of dour economic reportsUS stocks tumbled on Friday, extending a sell-off in the wake of dour economic reports and closing the book on a holiday-shortened week fraught with new tariff threats and worries of softening consumer demand.All three major US stock indexes moved decisively lower on the heels of the data, and continued their slide into afternoon trading. Continue reading...
Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, says direct action is being considered to save UK jobsBritain's income from inheritance tax is on track to hit a record this financial year, having risen around 10%.Inheritance Tax receipts for April 2024 to January 2025 are now 7.0bn, new data from HMRC shows, which is 700m higher than the same period last year.The inheritance tax creep crawls ever higher, hitting 7bn so far this tax year. This puts it well on track to surpass the 7.5bn record that it hit a year earlier.With government plans to include pensions in the net for inheritance tax from 2027 and thresholds remaining frozen, the tax take is only going to get higher. Continue reading...
by Richard Partington and Phillip Inman on (#6VFDE)
Rule dating from 2009 that limits borrowing looks vulnerable as main political parties promise to revive stalled economyGermany is used to running its economy with the brake on. Ever since the 2008 financial crisis Berlin has sought to burnish a reputation as the world capital of fiscal discipline, with a near-pious aversion to debt and pride in strong government finances.Under a rule known as the debt brake" - introduced in 2009 by Angela Merkel to show Germany was committed to balancing the books after the banking crash - the federal government is required to limit annual borrowing to 0.35% of GDP. Continue reading...
Donald Power, Dr Neil Lancastle and Andrew Risby respond to an editorial on Britain's broken economyRe your editorial (The Guardian view on Britain's broken economy: That's your bloody GDP, not ours', 13 February), we are frequently reminded of the inadequacy of GDP growth as an objective, given that it includes the money spent on dealing with pollution, sickness, crime etc. But nobody gets out of bed thinking, I have to grow GDP today". We're thinking about how to earn a living and pay the rent. Nobody, that is, except the chancellor, for whom growth is the No 1 mission" that underpinseverything else" -schools, hospitals, net zero.Yet decades of growth since the 1960s have left us with thousands of food banks and facing an environmental abyss. The idea that only more growth will allow us to protect the planet is like saying we can only finance the fire brigade by selling petrol to arsonists. Continue reading...
World's largest retailer expects inflation-weary consumers to pull back after shares hit record high of $105 last weekWalmart on Thursday forecast sales and profit for its latest fiscal year below Wall Street estimates, suggesting that the world's largest retailer expects inflation-weary consumers to pull back after several quarters of solid growth.Walmart shares, which had risen about 72% in 2024 and hit a record high of $105 last week, were down 6% in early trading. Shares of its rival retailer Target were down 1.6%, with Amazon 0.9% lower. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Torsten Bell defends Labour's spending plans, saying the status quo is economically and morally bankrupt'Britain's crumbling public services are bad for business, and spending more taxpayers' money to fix them is a pro-growth policy, the pensions minister, Torsten Bell, has argued.Rachel Reeves has been accused by business lobby groups of clobbering the economy with the 25bn increase in employer national insurance contributions imposed in her October budget. Continue reading...
Glencore considering move to New York or elsewhere where it can get the right valuation;' UK inflation rises more than expected as meat, bread and cereals become dearerWhile UK inflation has hit 3%, interest rate cuts are still on track, says Philip Shaw, chief economist at Investec.Today's headline figures are above the 2.8% which the Bank of England had pencilled into its forecasts in its Monetary Policy Report earlier this month. We gain some comfort though that neither core nor services inflation exceeded our expectations, as this points towards inflation strengthening due to volatile' or one-off items.Indeed what matters is not so much the precise peak in inflation, but the length of time it subsequently takes to subside towards the 2.0% target.the many demands placed on consumer discretionary incomes, which combined with the later booking profile and cost headwinds details, may mean profit margins in the year ahead come under some pressure. Continue reading...
With Spanish GDP growth leading Europe last year, diversity is making us richer - not only financially but culturally, tooThe world's fastest growing major advanced economy last year was most likely Spain. According to preliminary official data for 2024, Spain's GDP grew by 3.2%, almost five times the eurozone average and more than the US, which did pretty well too. In December, the Economist ranked Spain first among 37 mostly wealthy countries based on five indicators: GDP, stock market performance, core inflation, unemployment and government deficits. Forecasts for 2025 look good.Why is Spain doing so well? One key reason is immigration. Recent population flows, particularly but not only from Colombia, Venezuela and other Latin American countries, as well as Morocco, have boosted domestic demand and rejuvenated the workforce. According to the main labour national survey, nearly 90% of new jobs were filled by workers of foreign origin or dual nationality. Unemployment is at its lowest level since 2007.Maria Ramirez is a journalist and deputy managing editor of elDiario.es, a news outlet in Spain Continue reading...
White House has raised threat of levies as a means to bolster US economy, ignoring warnings trade wars could derail itDonald Trump stood firm against warnings that his threatened trade war risks derailing the US economy, claiming his administration could hit foreign cars with tariffs of around 25% within weeks.Semiconductor chips and drugs are set to face higher duties, Trump told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday. Continue reading...
by Ashifa Kassam European community affairs correspon on (#6VBMX)
As immigration has increased, GDP has surged and unemployment has fallen to lowest level since 2008From Madrid to Barcelona, restaurants and bars are brimming with people, and reservations have become essential for everything from fine dining to high-end hotels.It's a glimpse of how Spain has become Europe's buzziest economy - named the world's best by the Economist in 2024 - fuelled in part by what analysts have described as the government's strikingly different approach to migration. Continue reading...
Sarah Cardell says role of competition regulator remains the same but it must be wary of perceptionsSigns by the lifts in the Canary Wharf headquarters of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) remind staff not to talk about their work in public, given the billions of pounds resting on its decisions.But a very public debate is taking place about how the competition watchdog works and is run, with the Labour government determined to make an example of it. Continue reading...
The president's actions have sent a wave of terror through the community that underpins much of the US economyDonald Trump has ramped up anti-immigration fervor into his second presidency, promising mass deportations, pushing to increase arrests and bolstering public relations efforts to amplify arrests. The moves have sent a wave of terror through the undocumented worker community that underpins large parts of the US economy.Every day I wake up and walk out the door, I go with the hope of going to work, but with the fear of not being able to come back," said a construction worker and single parent in Texas who obtained immigration protection under the Biden administration. She requested to remain anonymous due to fears about her immigration status. Continue reading...
End of de minimis' policy for Chinese goods also expected to hit bigger fashion retailers such as Asos and BoohooMany UK-based independent sellers on marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon could suffer a significant hit to US sales from planned changes to import rules under Donald Trump, with experts comparing the impact to a second Brexit.The new rules, which mean all parcels originating or made in China and being sold into the US must pay import duty - of as much as 15% on fashion items - and an additional 10% tariff, are also expected to impact bigger online clothing retailers such as Asos and Boohoo. Continue reading...
Impending tax rises from autumn budget fuel collapse in sentiment and rising redundancy intentions, surveys showUK employers are preparing for the biggest redundancy round in a decade amid collapsing business confidence as firms brace for tax increases from April that Rachel Reeves announced in her autumn budget.In a fresh blow for the chancellor, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), which represents human resources professionals, said a survey of 2,000 employers showed redundancy intentions at their highest level in 10 years, barring the Covid pandemic. Continue reading...
Elon Musk's crazed takeover of America's financial plumbing risks shattering confidence in US institutions and in turn global financial stabilityWhen Donald Trump gave an in-flight press conference en route to the Super Bowl last week, it generated a flurry of news, from the fresh threat of steel tariffs to the declaration of Gulf of America Day".Much less remarked upon was a throwaway comment about the US's financial obligations, which underlined the fact that tariffs are far from the only way in which Trump is jeopardising economic stability. Continue reading...
America is in retreat from its underappreciated good works around the world. Europe needs to act - and Brexit only hinders this essential responseIn July 1817, Lord Amherst, the leader of a British delegation to China, stopped on his return journey at Saint Helena and met the exiled Napoleon Bonaparte.Napoleon had seldom been out of the news, but Amherst himself was also in the news for having pointedly refused to kowtow when having an audience with the Chinese emperor. Continue reading...
As her 9.9bn of headroom evaporates, chancellor will have to raise taxes, cut spending or break iron-clad' fiscal rulesWhen Rachel Reeves stood up in the House of Commons on budget day on 30 October as this country's first woman chancellor, she was brimming with pride: To girls and young women everywhere, I say: Let there be no ceiling on your ambition, your hopes and your dreams."Four months on, however, there are few women or men, young or old, at Westminster, who would envy Reeves's lot in charge of the country's finances. The bind she finds herself in is more the stuff of a chancellor's nightmares than dreams. Continue reading...
Demand for fuel has pushed gas prices up - but peace in Ukraine could flood the market and change everythingA scramble to heat homes during a cold winter across Europe has sent gas prices soaring from where they were six months ago. This week, that extra cost will appear in figures that City analysts say will show inflation jumped to 2.8% in January, from 2.5% in December and 1.7% last September.The Bank of England says inflation will keep rising towards 3.7% this year. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) has predicted the rate will rise to 3.2% in 2025. Continue reading...
The huge size of the US economy means that the president can throw his weight around - and we can't say we weren't warnedWhy is Donald Trump so obsessed with tariffs? If you ask me, it's because America is so freaking huge. California's economy is bigger than the entire UK's. Texas's is larger than all of Canada's. Florida's is larger than all of Mexico's. In its entirety the US economy is about eight times larger than both the Canadian and Mexican economies ... combined!Trump is a bully sitting on top of the world's biggest bully - the American economy. Bullies tend to use their fists to overcome others. Sometimes they can be outwitted. But we all know that strength and size means everything. Continue reading...
Trend towards more extreme-weather events will continue to hit crop yields and create price spikes, Inverto saysExtreme weather events are expected to lead to volatile food prices throughout 2025, supply chain analysts have said, after cocoa and coffee prices more than doubled over the past year.In an apparent confirmation of warnings that climate breakdown could lead to food shortages, research by the consultancy Inverto found steep rises in the prices of a number of food commodities in the year to January that correlated with unexpected weather. Continue reading...
Politicians believe tariffs will revive a lost era of American manufacturing. But they won't improve people's everyday livesDonald Trump appears to be testing the boundaries of the power he can accumulate and then exert upon his allies, with a singular ambition: to coerce them into submitting to US supremacy. Though the president temporarily walked back his threat to unleash severe universal tariffs on Mexico and Canada, he has since imposed 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports, which will primarily hit Canada, Mexico and China, and has announced a new plan for reciprocal tariffs" on American trading partners. Above all, he clearly intends to wage a trade war against China. His brash, bombastic and belligerent threats reflect the reactionary political energy that drove his rise, which feeds on displays of dominance and disruption. His trade war won't work to restore US economic dominance - but it tells us a lot about how both sides of the political aisle blame the US's economic precarity on China's economic ascent.Over the past decade both Democrats and Republicans have blamed growing economic discontent on the sharp decline of American industry. The share of the US workforce employed in manufacturing has been in decline since the 1950s: today, just over 8% of American workers are employed in manufacturing, compared with 32% in 1953. The postwar era holds a powerful resonance for both the right and the left, and is often romanticised as a period when unionised male breadwinners in the industrial working class enjoyed far greater economic stability and prosperity than working and middle-class people do today. Viewed through this prism, since the decline of US manufacturing has occurred at the same time that China has emerged as a global manufacturing powerhouse, China's gains equate to the US's - and its workers' - losses.Melanie Brusseler is a political economist and the US programme director at the thinktank Common WealthDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
by Richard Partington Economics correspondent on (#6V8G4)
While UK may not be in direct line of fire, knock-on effects on global trade has British businesses worriedWe're vulnerable at the moment," says Fiona Conor, the managing director of Trust Electric Heating, a Leeds-based radiator manufacturer, who has been considering expanding into the US market.After a predictably unpredictable start to Donald Trump's second term as US president, Conor is worried her options could be limited, as businesses across the UK brace for a global trade war. Continue reading...
The US president announced what he called reciprocal tariffs' on all other countries on ThursdayThe UK government will wait and see" whether tariffs announced by Donald Trump actually come to pass", a senior minister said.The US president announced what he called reciprocal tariffs" on all other countries on Thursday evening, claiming it was fair to all". Continue reading...
Despite growth in 2024, living standards fell. Inequality, weak public investment and government cuts threaten prosperity. Labour must offer voters something differentThe picture painted by official data for the UK economy in 2024 reveals a country broken by 14years of Conservative party rule. True, the economy grew - somewhat unexpectedly - but GDP per head fell, showing prosperity didn't reach most people. There are a few reasons for this decline but none suggests a healthy society. One is runaway wealth inequality, with gains hoarded at the top. Another is stark regional disparities, with some areas falling further behind despite national GDP rising. A third is rising immigration without enough job creation - more workers, but not enough well-paying positions.A growing economy means little if it doesn't improve living standards. In 2024, it didn't. This political reality has shaped recent years, and not in a good way. It's worth recalling a Newcastle woman's tart response to the political scientist Anand Menon in 2016 when he warned that Brexit would hit GDP: That's your bloody GDP, not ours." That continuing frustration explains the current backlash against mainstream politicians. No wonder SirKeir Starmer wants his party to be one of disruption.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
Bank to offer first two-year deal under 4% with rivals likely to follow suitThe first sub-4% mortgages for months are going on sale, handing a much-needed boost to first-time buyers and those worried about refinancing their home loan.Santander on Thursday will start offering fixed rate deals at 3.99% lasting for two and five years. However, eligible borrowers need a 40% deposit, or a sizeable amount of equity to access the deals. Continue reading...
Analysts say measures so far have been less than feared but traders still cautious as uncertainty about US policy has basically exploded'Asian markets were mixed on Tuesday as traders kept a nervous eye on Donald Trump's next moves after he signed off on 25% tariffs for steel and aluminium imports, having warned of more measures to come.The president has lived up to his campaign pledges to resume his hardball trade diplomacy to extract concessions on a range of issues, including commerce, immigration and drug trafficking. Continue reading...
Ex-treasury secretaries caution against administration's subversion of checks and balances, specifically MuskA group of five former US treasury secretaries are warning that the Trump administration has put the country's key payment systems under siege" and is undermining the checks and balances of the federal government.The secretaries warned that the administration had compromised roles historically given to non-partisan career civil servants and had replaced them with political actors", according to a New York Times op-ed published on Monday. The secretaries specifically called into question Elon Musk's so-called department of government efficiency", or Doge, and the appointees that Musk has installed within agencies, including the treasury department. Continue reading...
FTSE 100 hits record high as pound falls after US president says he will impose 25% levies on steel and aluminium importsUK steelmakers have warned that the imposition of new US tariffs would be a devastating blow" to the industry, after Donald Trump said he would announce 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium imports into the US.Gold reached a record high and aluminium prices rose as financial markets were rattled by the US president's comments, which caused concern in the UK and the EU. Continue reading...
UK jobseekers say employers are hiring fewer staff - whom they expect to do more for less payThis is the worst I've ever experienced in the job market, including the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, which also left me unemployed for a time, and the pandemic," said David Hoghton-Carter, 46, a corporate strategy professional from Leeds.Hoghton-Carter was among the 1.57 million people in the UK who were trying to find work between September and November 2024, and is still hunting after nearly two years. Continue reading...