UK Economy

Following weeks of speculation, Britain's unpopular Labour government will deliver its second budget later Wednesday since it returned to power in a landslide election victory in July 2024 after 14 years in opposition. Treasury chief Rachel Reeves, the first woman to hold the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer, is set to tell lawmakers that more tax-raising measures are necessary to plug a hole in the public finances. Reeves said much the same at her first budget a little more than a year ago. That budget, she had insisted, would be the one and only big tax-raising budget in this parliamentary term, which is due to run to 2029. Unfortunately for Reeves, the British economy, the world's sixth-largest, is not doing as well as she hoped, with many critics blaming her decision last year to slap taxes on business. Though there were signs that the economy was on the mend in the first half of the year when it was the fastest-growing among the Group of Seven leading industrial nations, it'

Britain's Business and Trade Secretary Peter Kyle admitted that it is Labour's taxation regime that is causing the exodus of the super-rich

Industrialist Venu Srinivasan was reappointed as a life trustee of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust on Wednesday, a day before his three-year term was to end. The decision was taken unanimously by the board

Economic think tanks now expect Reeves to need to raise about 30 billion pounds in tax increases at the November 26 budget

Britain's Treasury chief warned Monday that wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and economic headwinds sparked by US President Donald Trump's tariffs have worsened the UK's economic outlook since the governing Labour Party won power last year. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves is under pressure to say whether she will raise taxes in her autumn budget on November 26. "In the last year the world has changed, and we are not immune to that change," she told the BBC. "Whether it is wars in Europe and the Middle East, whether it is increased barriers to trade because of tariffs coming from the United States, whether it is the global cost of borrowing, we're not immune to any of those things." Reeves hopes to deliver a touch of economic optimism when she addresses the Labour Party's annual conference in Liverpool later on Monday. Since ending 14 years of Conservative rule in July 2024, the Labour government has struggled to deliver the economic growth it promised. Inflation remai

Britain's economy slowed down during the second quarter of the year in the face of higher taxes on businesses and global tariff uncertainties, but growth came in higher than anticipated, official figures showed Thursday. The Office for National Statistics said output expanded by 0.3% during the second quarter from the previous three-month period, largely as a result of a strong performance in June. Though that was lower than the 0.7% increase in the first quarter of the year, it was ahead of market expectations of only a 0.1% rise. The bigger than expected increase will be welcome news to the Labour government, which has made improving growth its number one priority since it returned to power in July 2024. Higher growth will also bolster public finances as it leads to higher tax revenues. If growth continues to beat expectations in coming months, Treasury chief Rachel Reeves will be under less pressure to deliver another big tax-raising budget this fall. Reeves said Thursday's fig

Gross domestic product declined by 0.1 per cent after a 0.3 per cent drop in April, the Office for National Statistics said

Tax data showed the number of employees on payroll tumbled 109,000 in May, the biggest decline since May 2020, the Office for National Statistics said Tuesday

The data error means the inflation rate would have been closer to the 3.3 per cent consensus forecast and 3.4 per cent predicted by the central bank

Economists said the figures reflected concerns among employers about a tax increase imposed on them by finance minister Rachel Reeves and over US President Donald Trump's trade war

New data has revealed that Britain has added just 65 miles (105 km) of motorway in the past decade, a figure that includes reclassifications rather than fresh construction

The Bank of England is set to keep UK interest rates unchanged Thursday even though the economy is barely growing and set for further uncertainty in light of the tariff policies being enacted by the Trump administration in the US. The nine-member Monetary Policy Committee is expected to keep the bank's main interest rate at 4.50%, given that inflation remains above target and set to go higher in the coming months, as firms are expected to raise prices as a result of a big increase in the minimum wage and higher payroll taxes. Inflation in the UK rose to a 10-month high of 3% in January further above the bank's target of 2%. And many economists think it could rise as high as 4% in the coming months. The rate-setting panel has reduced the bank's main rate from a 16-year high of 5.25% by a quarter of a percentage on three occasions since last August, most recently in February, after inflation fell from multi-decade highs of over 10%. If it pursues this gradual approach, then it would

In her first public comments since she and Catherine Mann voted for a half-point rate cut on Feb 6, Dhingra said consumer spending was likely to remain weak and inflationary pressures subdued

Services inflation - a key gauge of price pressures for the central bank - stood at 5.0 per cent in January compared with 4.4 per cent in December, the ONS said

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said the BoE would be "monitoring the UK economy and global developments very closely and taking a gradual and careful approach to reducing rates further"

The trouble this time was largely pinned on shifts in global interest rate expectations. But bond market watchers have pointed to a notable change in UK market dynamics that seems to have taken root

Britain's housing market gained some momentum last year on hopes that borrowing costs would continue their fall although slower-than-expected rate cuts sapped some demand

Britain's Treasury chief is travelling to China this weekend in a bid to boost economic and financial cooperation between the countries, as the UK's Labour government seeks to reset strained ties with Beijing. Rachel Reeves will seek stability in the United Kingdom's relationship with China and aim to help grow Britain's lackluster economy, the Treasury said on Friday. She will travel to Beijing and Shanghai and meet with her Chinese government counterpart, Vice Premier He Lifeng. A focus of Reeves' trip is reviving the China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue annual bilateral talks that have been suspended since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and deteriorating relations in recent years. The British side wants the dialogue to help bring down barriers that UK businesses face when looking to export or expand to China. The talks were shelved after ties soured following a series of spying allegations from both sides, China's support for Russia in the Ukraine war and a crackdown on

The UK on Thursday announced the world's first new sanctions regime to combat people smuggling crime rings and block the illicit finance fuelling such operations as part of measures to crack down on illegal migration. The government said the new standalone sanctions are dedicated to targeting irregular migration and organised immigration crime, which will allow the authorities to target individuals and entities enabling dangerous journeys. The new sanctions regime is expected to come into force within the year as experts from across government work with law enforcement and operational Home Office colleagues to stem finance flows at their source and deter smugglers facilitating irregular migratory movements, including dangerous sea crossings across Europe. We must dismantle the crime gangs facilitating breaches of our borders. By crippling illicit finance rings allowing smugglers to traffic vulnerable people across Europe, we will deliver on our Plan for Change and secure UK borders,

The yield on 30-year British gilts rose sharply on Tuesday and again on Wednesday, outpacing increases for other governments' bonds and hitting its highest since August 1998 at 5.383 per cent