UK house prices hit record high but slowdown looms; eurozone bond yields rise – as it happened

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

• Latest: Asda to offer Smart Price value range in all food stores and online
• Eurozone bond yields rise as investors anticipate earlier tightening
• Halifax: House prices hit record of 276,759 in January
• Experts: House price juggernaut slowing
• Surging inflation will slow recovery in 2022, predicts EY
• Tesco chairman warns of food price inflation at 5% by spring
• How the UK's dutiful launderette is fading under Covid and energy prices

Supply chain bottlenecks continue to hit German factories and building firms, new data shows.

German industrial production dipped by 0.3% in December, down from 0.3% growth in November, and weaker than the 0.4% rise forecast by analysts.

The sharp drop in construction activity weighed on industrial production, while the manufacturing sector saw production increasing for the second month in a row.

Despite these first positive signs, German industry remains in the stranglehold of global supply chain frictions. It is not only semiconductors but all kinds of input goods, ranging from bottom brackets for bikes to magnesium needed in automotive and aircraft construction. This bottleneck problem has reached unprecedented levels. For example, the estimated number of months' production assured by orders on hand in manufacturing has reached 4.5 months.

Remember the glass ketchup bottle that you shake and tap all you want with no result until suddenly it all comes flooding out and your food is smothered in ketchup? Under the surface of today's headline data, the bottle has started to drip.