George Osborne has unveiled the budget. Here are 26 key pointsThis aims to raise £520m in a two-part levy on companies – one for total sugar content above 5g per 100ml and one for drinks with more than 8g per 100ml – to be introduced in two years’ time. Pure fruit juice and milk are excluded. It will be used to fund sport and longer school days.Rowena Mason, political correspondent This is a big political story after pressure from the medical community to act on obesity. Cameron was said to be sympathetic, then backtracked, but has now taken the plunge. Some Conservatives may not be happy with the nanny statism but the government will be able to rely on opposition support to get it through.RM The increase in the 40p threshold is another tax cut for high earners to delight the Tory backbenches. The personal allowance changes will benefit middle and some lower earners too but not those at the very bottom of the income scale who are already taken out of tax altogether.RM This explains measures to boost saving in last year’s budget which have still not come into force, and introduces new incentives for saving. It is meant to ‘put the next generation first’ but Labour is likely to point out that many people can hardly afford day-to-day costs, let alone setting aside thousands of pounds in savings.RM Osborne has not dared to increase fuel duty for fear of a huge revolt among Tory backbenchers. The original campaigner for fuel duty freezes, Rob Halfon, ended up as the chancellor’s parliamentary private secretary and is now deputy chair of the Conservatives.RM This extra tax was a great cash cow for the Treasury when the oil price was high but has proved punishing for the industry now it has slumped.RM Osborne gives with one hand to business and takes away with the other. The climate change levy is a tax on non-domestic users to encourage them to reduce energy consumption. He is, however, abolishing the carbon reduction commitment - a complicated reporting regime that was only introduced in 2010.Related: Budget 2016 live: George Osborne claims Britain on course for budget surplusRM This is due to the ‘storms’ gathering in the economy that Osborne has been heavily emphasising recently. He is also trying to set the weaker figures in an international context, saying the UK is still growing faster than other countries. However, the negative economic news is being overshadowed by interest in the sugar levy.RM Osborne has risked infuriating pro-Brexit colleagues by using the platform of the budget and independent OBR advice to make the case for the UK staying in the EU. But he has obviously calculated that it is worth the row to hammer home the fact that the UK’s fragile growth figures are predicated on staying in the EU.RM Once again the chancellor is stressing the uncertain economic environment. It certainly helps the cause of the campaign to stay in the EU to keep repeating that the UK is in a risky economic position that should not be jeopardised by Brexit.RM Osborne is pressing ahead with austerity as usual, despite some financial voices saying there is no need to at this point and when the economy is still fragile. Some of this will come from cuts to benefits for the disabled. The chancellor tried to downplay it by saying the overall disability budget would rise by £1bn but this is less than it would have been without £1.2bn of savings due to reforms of the personal independence payment.RM Only last year the chancellor thought he would have a surplus of around £23bn to play with this year. However, this was later revised down to £10bn. He is sticking to this target now as a result of further spending cuts.RM Time and time again, Osborne unveils plans to find extra billions through crackdowns on tax avoidance that never seem to yield as much as predicted. He is now ending several loopholes, including stopping multinationals over-borrowing in the UK and then deducting interest bills from their British profits and restrictions on offsetting losses against tax from 2019.RM This is what the prime minister must have meant when he talked about a pro-business budget. Labour is likely to question whether companies should be getting even lower tax, when welfare is being slashed even further.RM This is likely to delight small businesses as rates are a deeply unpopular tax that disadvantage high street shops compared with online retailers. However, it will be councils that suffer as they are getting revenue from business rates devolved to them.Osborne is hailing the move for London as a triumph for devolution but it will be less lucrative than currently because he is slashing rates for small businesses at the same time.RM This is a handy cut for the Tory effort in Wales where there are assembly elections in May.RM This could be seen as a partial win for the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who has repeatedly raised the topic. However, there are not many details at present about how it will be used.RM Osborne is ploughing on with funding announcements for his “northern powerhouse”, although these will not be built for quite some time.RM The government came in for heavy criticism for under-funding flood defences during the last winter crisis. This looks like it could allow ministers to say they are increasing it more than in the last parliament.RM Osborne has been emphasising that this is a budget for the next generation. At the same time, ministers are opening themselves up to charges of being overly ideological with their determination to take schools out of council control for little gain.RM ‘Sin taxes’ are an easy way for the chancellor to raise a bit extra. Few can object to raising additional money from smoking.RM Osborne was mocked for being patronising to voters with his ‘beer and bingo’ budget of 2014, but freezing alcohol duty is a popular move that is simple to sell on the doorstep.RM He skated over this quite quickly but this is a massive change to benefit investors when they make money. Labour’s Chris Leslie said: ‘Lots of very wealthy people will be delighted with massive giveaway.’ Continue reading...

Has George Osborne’s sugary bunny sweetened the pill of further cuts, and is this his big pitch for the leadership? Continue reading...

• Proceeds of levy on soft drinks to fund school sports

Social injustice on an unprecedented scale, massive inequities and loss of trust in elites define our political moment – and rightly soSomething interesting has emerged in voting patterns on both sides of the Atlantic: young people are voting in ways that are markedly different from their elders. A great divide appears to have opened up, based not so much on income, education or gender, as on the voters’ generation.There are good reasons for this divide. The lives of both old and young, as they are now lived, are different. Their pasts are different, and so are their prospects. The cold war, for example, was over even before some were born and while others were still children. Words such as socialism do not convey the meaning they once did. If socialism means creating a society where shared concerns are not given short shrift – where people care about other people and the environment in which they live – so be it. Yes, there may have been failed experiments under that rubric a quarter- or half-century ago; but today’s experiments bear no resemblance to those of the past. So the failure of those past experiments says nothing about the new ones. Continue reading...

Unemployment rate has held at 5.1%, while average weekly earnings for employees has risen 2.1% in three months to JanuaryUK unemployment has held at a 10-year low and wage growth has edged up, according to official figures that provide a small, pre-budget boost for George Osborne.Average weekly earnings for employees rose 2.1% in the three months to January compared with a year earlier, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. That was faster than the 2% growth rate in the previous three months. It also beat economists’ forecasts for another 2% reading in a Reuters poll.Related: Budget 2016 live: George Osborne to announce fresh austerity and school shakeup Continue reading...

Growth, borrowing, spending cuts, the jobs market and Brexit – what to look out for in George Osborne’s eighth budgetGeorge Osborne’s eighth budget is unlikely to be a radical affair, as the state of the public finances and the upcoming EU referendum limit the chancellor’s room for manoeuvre. This all but rules out big or controversial policy announcements (he has already decided not to press ahead with pension tax relief reform). But with the economy growing more slowly than expected and borrowing remaining high, the chancellor has already signalled further spending cuts of £4bn.We expect the Office for Budget Responsibility to cut its forecasts for growth by one or two 10ths. This, along with a poorer outturn for the current fiscal year, would push the deficit higher in the absence of further tightening measures.Downward revisions to growth seem likely. Chancellor Osborne will blame financial market wobbles and China’s slowdown, but the main problems are closer to home.Earnings growth has never really taken off post-crisis - so the cost of recession on earnings remains over £100/week pic.twitter.com/AVyPjVEL72Borrowing looks set to overshoot this fiscal year as a whole, and future years’ borrowing forecasts will be hit by the recent bout of global uncertainty (count the number of times “cocktail of risks” is mentioned ...) and slowdown in the domestic economy. Offsetting this to some degree will be lower debt interest forecasts due to lower expectations for gilt yields and Bank Rate.”These cuts will be contentious as they will take more demand out of the economy at a time when the economic backdrop is already very challenging. Further cuts would also present logistical problems: November’s comprehensive spending review put in place departmental budgets for the next four fiscal years, so these would need to be reopened.”In many respects, we see this budget as similar to a pre-election budget. Against the backdrop of evenly divided public and Conservative opinion over the EU referendum in June, we think that the chancellor and prime minister would likely prefer a ‘feelgood’ budget, and would probably choose to avoid any controversial decisions.”Economically, the emergency budget of 2010 was the most important one for the Conservative government. Politically, budget 2016 could be the most important one. Few days on the political calendar get more coverage than budget day ...[Osborne] will argue that the UK has a choice between a ‘certain’ new deal that improves the UK’s lot with the worst of austerity over, or, a choice with an uncertain long-term outcome that almost certainly damages the economy near term and sends progress on the public debt into reverse. This is powerful rhetoric to deliver on a key day and it won’t be an opportunity he’ll miss.” Continue reading...

Our guide to what it all means in the chancellor’s budgetDo you know your debt from your deficit? Your benefit cap from your universal credit? And what has Mr Micawber got to do with it all?

George Osborne eyeing cuts of £4bn but will plough on with pet projects including the academisation of all schoolsGeorge Osborne will announce fresh austerity measures on Wednesday as he delivers his eighth budget against the backdrop of a darkening economic outlook.

The easiest route for the chancellor will be to ladle out a few modest tax cuts paid for by stealth taxesBudgets have their own rhythm. Chancellors like to marry economics and politics and that means getting all the bad news out of the way early in a parliament so that there are goodies to be handed out when an election is looming.

George Osborne expected to announce funding in Wednesday’s budget, aimed at targeting ‘unacceptable’ growth in homelessnessGeorge Osborne is preparing to announce extra cash in Wednesday’s budget to tackle what he has called the “unacceptable” growth in homelessness.

All the day’s economic and financial news, including rumours that Beijing is pondering tighter currency controls

Additions and removals to the consumer prices index, according to the ONSRelated: Nightclubs out and coffee pods in as inflation basket updated Continue reading...

Economic exclusion helped trigger the conflict in Syria. Rebuilding will mean integrating disparate groups and enabling them to find jobsEconomy and peace are intimately linked. But the economy can also play a role in conflict, and competition over resources is at the heart of most of the conflicts we see today.Syria is no exception. The erosion of livelihoods by prolonged drought, and a history of excluding certain groups, helped trigger the conflict, which enters its sixth year this week. Related: Voices from Syria: 'This camp is a paradise compared to life back home' Continue reading...

Sanders’ plan means higher taxes if you’re middle-aged – but it will make your children wealthier, more productive, and better able to look after youBernie Sanders, in his election manifesto, has argued for making tuition free at public colleges and universities. This is a proposal that has struck many, including prominent economists, as ludicrous. For sure, there are scant details about how all this would work in practice and I don’t mean to shove those under the rug. And yes, there are legitimate concerns from economists about making education too cheap, thereby promoting its overuse, as well as reducing the skin in the game for students.But I am here to argue that the plan makes economic sense, and the current generation of middle-aged workers, even if it means higher taxes on them, should consider rallying behind it. My argument is a variant of the old adage: “Be nice to your children. They’ll choose your nursing home.”Related: Bernie Sanders: free public college tuition is the 'right thing to do' Continue reading...

Additions to the basket also include computer software and cream liqueurThe decline of Britain’s nightclub scene has forced the government’s independent data gatherers to exclude admission prices to late night dance venues from the official inflation figures.The Office for National Statistics said the closure of scores of nightclubs in recent years and the shift to free or low cost entry for many of those that remain meant the prices were harder to gather and no longer a useful guide to inflation in the hospitality sector.Related: The 2016 inflation basket: what's in, what's out Continue reading...

Manchester to Leeds railway line, Peak District underground tunnel and Crossrail 2 to receive funding from chancellor in budgetGeorge Osborne will use Wednesday’s budget to set in motion plans for a high-speed railway line from Manchester to Leeds and an 18-mile underground road tunnel beneath the Peak District.The chancellor will also promise to “prioritise” a north-south link through central London as he accepts the final recommendations of the National Infrastructure Commission, led by former Labour peer Lord Adonis, which are being published on Tuesday.Related: Budget 2016: George Osborne fuels speculation of nasty shocks Continue reading...

The confederation may hold some of the UK’s biggest exporters, but does its opinion count in an era of corporate scandals and “fat cat pay” rows?There was never the slightest doubt that the CBI would back Britain remaining a part of the European Union. For all the talk while David Cameron was conducting his negotiations that the employers’ organisation was in favour of remaining in a reformed union, it would not really have mattered had the prime minister come back from Brussels with a blank sheet of paper: he was always going to have the CBI onside.Related: CBI member survey reveals huge support for remaining in EU Continue reading...

North-east England is still feeling the effects of the Redcar closure, but some businesses are confounding grim statisticsIt costs £1.35 for a Victoria sponge in Yasmin’s halal bakery on Middlesbrough’s Parliament Road. That’s for a whole cake, not just a slice. “We charge what we can,” said owner Shazad Ahmed, describing his shop as the “Asian Greggs” as he tried to tempt us with a jumbo samosa (58p). Business is not booming: “We’re just covering our costs at the minute.”When the SSI steel plant 10 miles up the road in Redcar shut in October with the direct loss of 2,200 jobs and the same again in the supply chain, the reverberations were felt across Teesside. “It has a knock-on effect for us. With the steel workers not having any jobs, they aren’t going to come and spend money in our businesses. They haven’t got no money no more,” said Ahmed. A customer, Tan Hanif, chipped in: “If that steel complex was in London, the government would have put money into it and kept it open.”Related: Budget 2016: George Osborne fuels speculation of nasty shocksRelated: Life after steel: can Redcar rise from the ashes? Continue reading...

A key component of every budget is the distributional analysis, which shows how the chancellor’s spending decisions will affect households across the income spectrum. However, despite its obvious importance, the government removed this analysis from last year’s emergency summer budget. We believe this is a serious mistake.It is a vital function of government to clearly detail the implications of its policies on the finances of different income groups. Moreover, in order to tackle poverty, inequality, and other social ills, it is important that government publishes its most robust data to provide an accurate account of the scale of these problems. This includes data on whether government policies effectively alleviate or exacerbate them. Continue reading...

All the day’s economic and financial news, as traders brace for news from the Fed, the Bank of England and the BoJ this week

The former Bank of England governor’s condemnation of the world economic and political order offers few solutions but deserves a wide audienceMervyn King looks like one of those old-fashioned bank managers who cast a paternalistic eye on the nervous customer. Or he could be a GP telling you that you really need to exercise more and go easy on the carbs. It is in this vein that he probes the state of the global economy; his diagnosis does not reassure.Not for him is the Piketty-esque grand sweep. He avoids the hubris of the “I told you so” school (virtually none of them actually did tell us so ahead of time). He says he is not interested in the blame game, which is probably just as well considering that he was governor of the Bank of England at the time of the great crash of 2007-08. He baldly states: “No doubt there were bankers who were indeed wicked and central bankers who were incompetent, though the vast majority of both whom I met during the crisis were neither.” Many (myself included) might beg to disagree, but this argument has exhausted itself.Most alarming is the inability of economists and politicians to think their way out of the mire Continue reading...

With such grave financial prospects, it’s no wonder today’s under-25s prefer jogging to drinking. To have a sense of freedom now seems illogicalIt’s bad news for the drinks industry, but it’s mainly bad news for people who think each generation is more feckless than the last: the number of drinkers among 16- to 24-year-olds has dropped sharply. All kinds of drinkers are dying out: the steady drinkers, the binge drinkers, the drinkers-in-training, the social drinkers the bus stop drinkers – the lot.In a study by the Office for National Statistics, less than half of young people reported drinking anything in the previous week, compared with two-thirds of 45- to 64-year-olds – many of whom are in all likelihood under medical advice to please cut it out, or at least do the nation the favour of lying about it in surveys.Today’s students must look at the lad and ladette culture of the 90s and wonder who we thought we were Continue reading...

Jeremy Corbyn has a tough job countering chancellor’s budget but openings do exist – on wages, investment and productivityJeremy Corbyn has one of the hardest gigs in politics coming up on Wednesday. By tradition the response to the budget comes not from the shadow chancellor but from the leader of the opposition, who has the unenviable task of responding to a package of measures he has not seen and which invariably contains one or two big surprises.The surprise this time could be some modest tax cuts. George Osborne likes nothing better than to set traps for his political opponents, so Corbyn should be alive to the possibility that the budget will not be nearly as grim an affair as its advance billing has indicated.Related: George Osborne's November pledges: how far has he got? Continue reading...

It’s 100 years on from the Easter Rising, but in the wake of economic crisis and deep uncertainty, Ireland faces huge challenges once more. Here, five young Irish novelists offer a personal view of their homeland todayKevin Curran’s first novel, Beatsploitation, tackled the subject of racism in Ireland. His follow-up, Citizens, takes the events of 1916 as its starting point. He works as a teacher and lives in Skerries, County DublinIn the winter of 2014 I attended my first anti-water charges protest. But the march had already started – its smooth flow of bodies drifting cheerfully down O’Connell Street in Dublin – by the time I joined it. My train had been delayed. Such was the feeling of distrust with the government, whispers from passengers with their “No way, we won’t pay” placards had spread giddy rumours through the carriage that it was a state-directed conspiracy to stop us getting there.Cities, to my mind, are for people who like to do things in close proximity to other peopleRelated: Spill Simmer Falter Wither by Sara Baume review – instils fear and wonderRelated: The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney review – the Sweary Lady is on bellicose formRelated: This Is the Ritual by Rob Doyle review – sex, drugs and NietzscheRelated: Eggshells by Caitriona Lally review – a daring debutCoffee used to be a treat to meet a pal for; now it’s a polystyrene necessity to get through the day Continue reading...

The chancellor made many promises in his autumn statement and spending review in November – but how many has been able to keep?As George Osborne puts the finishing touches to his budget, voters may well be bracing themselves for yet another smoke-and-mirrors performance. Like so many chancellors before him, the government’s austerity champion has had to fend off plenty of accusations of double-counting, re-announcing and empty promises.

It seems like machines are taking all the jobs, so let’s nurture our ‘soft skills’ and keep people one step aheadWhat a time to be a human: barely a day goes by without a new warning that the machines will steal our jobs. More news is due on this robot uprising this week when George Osborne is expected to announce a trial of driverless lorries in his budget.The World Economic Forum says more than 7 million jobs are at risk from advances in technology in the world’s largest economies over the next five years. The Bank of England’s chief economist, Andy Haldane, is gloomier still and warns up to 15m jobs in Britain are at risk of being lost to an age of robots. Continue reading...

The politics of the EU referendum and of the Tory succession mean the chancellor’s future depends on his performanceDavid Cameron was talking with an intimate about his relationship with George Osborne and their differences in temperament. “I’m 50% politician, 50% human being,” said the Tory leader. He did not spend every waking minute scheming and strategising. There were other things in his life. That is why he would be content in the retirement from Number 10, which he has told everyone will take place before the next election. Then he mused upon his neighbour, friend and favoured successor. The chancellor was a different blend of species, said the prime minister: “George is 90% politician, 10% human.”Some of George Osborne’s colleagues might query whether there is as much as 10% of human DNA in his genome. He prepares to deliver this week’s budget with a reputation as a supremely political chancellor. His six-year tenure at the Treasury can be seen as an extended tutorial in how guile at politics can be more important than success at policy. He has repeatedly failed to hit many of his own targets. The deficit was supposed to have vanished by now. He has bust his own welfare cap. His growth forecasts have been subject to endless revision. More than once, he has been compelled into large and humiliating U-turns. Yet he has survived his mistakes because he established such a strong narrative when he first moved into the Treasury that everything could be blamed on “the mess” inherited from the last Labour government and he sustained that framing of the argument through to the Tory election victory last May. That was also a reminder that all politics is relative. However chequered his own record, the group of voters who trusted him and David Cameron with the economy outnumbered those who had faith in the two Eds. Continue reading...

The capital is home to 1,000 ‘family offices’, made up of lawyers and financiers who service every need of the super-richBehind smart Georgian facades in prime West End addresses a little-known industry that serves the growing numbers of the global super-rich in London is booming.Boasting marble foyers and plushly carpeted meeting rooms, some of these companies might be mistaken for luxury hotels. In fact, they are private offices that manage family wealth that can compare with the assets of FTSE 250 companies such as Tate & Lyle and Debenhams.Related: Almost half of Britain's private wealth owned by top 10% of householdsRelated: One in 65 UK adults now a millionaire, figures show Continue reading...

Chancellor urged by Labour and Lib Dems to give priority in his budget to low earners and use spare money to offset welfare cutsChancellor George Osborne is under pressure to shelve promised tax cuts for the well-off as he looks to plug a massive and unexpected black hole in the public finances.In his budget on Wednesday, Osborne faces one of his toughest political and economic tests to date as he tries to keep his deficit reduction strategy on course after a period of weaker than expected growth, while honouring Tory election pledges to cut personal taxes.Related: Osborne faces up to tough choices in an altogether bleaker budgetRelated: How Eurosceptics are stalling George Osborne's ride to No 10 Continue reading...

Last year’s autumn statement painted a rosy picture of rising incomes and revenues. Now the global economy is slipping back, what will the chancellor do?George Osborne is struggling to hit his financial targets. And like an archer facing strong headwinds, the chancellor will almost certainly be forced to adjust his sights in the budget this week to meet his promise of a surplus in the government’s finances by 2020.For months Osborne has warned that storm clouds are gathering over the global economy and that this poses a threat the UK and, by implication, the exchequer. It is these factors that he will blame for blowing him off course. Yet his own fiscal charter’s aim of a budget surplus must still be met. Here are seven areas he may tackle to raise taxes and cut spending. Continue reading...

Bank of England says graduates can still expect to earn more than those without degrees but supply has exceeded demandThe rapid expansion of university education is affecting the earning power of graduates, according to a Bank of England study showing the value of a degree has declined sharply over 20 years.Threadneedle Street said those leaving university could expect to earn more over their working lives than people without academic qualifications, but that the wage premium had been cut from 45% to 34% between 1995 and 2015. Continue reading...

Key figure in EU deal Cameron sealed in Brussels last month to replace Sir Nicholas MacphersonThe Whitehall man who helped David Cameron hammer out his EU deal has been rewarded with one of the most powerful jobs in the civil service and a key role in the running of the economy.Tom Scholar, 47, the prime minister’s principal adviser on the European Union, has been installed as permanent secretary to the Treasury, replacing Sir Nicholas Macpherson who is stepping down at the end of this month.Delighted Tom Scholar will be new @HMTreasury permanent secretary. One of the very best and brightest in our public life. Continue reading...

Party’s former election chief says tax and spending plans echo Ed Balls’s approach that was derided by supporters of Jeremy CorbynLabour’s former election chief Spencer Livermore has accused the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, of rehashing the tax and spending policy on which the party fought the last election.McDonnell used a speech in Westminster on Friday morning to announce a “fiscal credibility rule”, which would force a future Labour government to match tax revenues and day-to-day spending – while allowing borrowing to pay for investment.Related: John McDonnell’s new fiscal rule is strong. But it won’t win an election | Andrew HarropRelated: Nothing wildly radical about John McDonnell's spending plans Continue reading...

With interest rates so low, governments should borrow to invest in research, education, and infrastructureThe world economy is visibly sinking, and the policymakers who are supposed to be its stewards are tying themselves in knots. Or so suggest the results of the G-0 summit held in Shanghai at the end of last month.The International Monetary Fund, having just downgraded its forecast for global growth, warned the assembled G20 attendees that yet another downgrade was pending. Despite this, all that emerged from the meeting was an anodyne statement about pursuing structural reforms and avoiding beggar-thy-neighbour policies. Continue reading...

City links: A worldwide cost of living index, a failed ‘smart’ bus service and a new gentrification podcast all feature in this week’s pick of the best city storiesThis week’s round-up of city stories takes you from Singapore to New York via Helsinki. We’d love to hear your responses to these stories, and any others you’ve read recently: share your thoughts in the comments below.

UK’s trade deficit narrows as construction industry output weakens slightlyA modest narrowing of Britain’s trade gap coupled with a slight weakening in the construction sector has provided George Osborne with mixed economic news before next week’s budget.Related: European stocks jump on ECB stimulus and higher oil prices – business live Continue reading...

Read the full transcript of our interview with the ECB president in which he calls for more to be done to help Generation YWhat does the European Central Bank’s own research on incomes and younger generations say?

ECB president laments high levels of youth unemployment and warns near-zero inflation damages Generation Y’s prospectsEurope’s economies are rigged to protect older workers at the cost of new employees, the president of the European Central Bank has told the Guardian.Mario Draghi also said “tragic” high levels of youth unemployment had the potential to threaten social harmony in Europe and that rock-bottom inflation was damaging the prospects of Generation Y by redistributing their wealth to older people.Related: Mario Draghi: 'Reducing youth unemployment is a priority for everyone'Youth unemployment is a tragedy and prevents people from playing a full and meaningful part in societyRelated: Why the falling oil price may not lead to boom Continue reading...

New ultra-cheap loans to banks among unprecedented package of measures as Mario Draghi seeks to jump-start economyThe European Central Bank has cut interest rates across the eurozone to zero as it unveiled an unprecedented package of growth-boosting measures against the backdrop of a fragile global economy.Related: ECB stimulus hint steadies marketsRelated: How the ECB is trying to revive the eurozoneRelated: ECB can only buy time, not solve eurozone growth woesRelated: Kipper Williams on ECB cutting eurozone interest rate to zero Continue reading...

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell tells Guardian restoring Labour’s economic reputation is “struggle of generation”Labour would borrow billions of pounds to fund public investment projects, while exerting an “iron discipline” over day-to-day spending, shadow chancellor John McDonnell has said, as he seeks to win back the party’s reputation for economic competence.In an interview with the Guardian, he described shoring up Labour’s fiscal credibility as “the struggle of a generation”, but insisted that exerting tight control over spending did not signal the abandonment of Jeremy Corbyn’s anti-austerity stance. Continue reading...

European Central Bank also ramps up quantatitive easing programme in attempt to fend off deflationThe European Central Bank has surprised financial markets by cutting interest rates in the eurozone to zero, expanding its money printing programme and reducing a key deposit rate further into negative territory as it seeks to revive the economy and fend off deflation.Related: ECB can only buy time, not solve eurozone growth woesRelated: How the ECB is trying to revive the eurozoneMonetary policy decisions https://t.co/eZRPXZcJCy Continue reading...

European Central Bank tries again to revive bloc’s economy, with measures including increased quantatitive easing Continue reading...