UK mortgage rates have soared as the Bank of England raised borrowing costs over the past 18 months. But the latest jump, which carried the interest rate on the average two-year loan above 6 per cent this week, has been driven by frenzied speculation in financial markets about what the central bank will do next
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Season ticket renewal time. Thirty-five years on, I can’t explain why I chose Arsenal. It wasn’t the nearest club (Crystal Palace) or the most successful (Liverpool). Once the decision was made, though, it became self-reinforcing. Attachments deepen with time and habit until their origin is beside the point. I can tell, though not without fail,
UK grocery price inflation eased for a third consecutive month in June, with new data suggesting it might have peaked, according to research company Kantar. The annual pace of supermarket price increases eased to 16.5 per cent for the four weeks to June 11, down from 17.2 per cent the previous month. The figure was
European equities followed Asian stocks lower on Tuesday as investors questioned whether China’s smaller than expected cut to its benchmark lending rate would be sufficient to boost the country’s sluggish economy. Europe’s region-wide Stoxx 600 lost 0.1 per cent, extending its losses from the previous session, while Germany’s Dax was down 0.3 per cent. London’s
Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund ADQ held detailed talks to take Wall Street investment bank Lazard private, in a move that underlined the oil-rich emirate’s ambitions to acquire a western financial services company. The talks were held this year between Lazard, led by outgoing chief executive Ken Jacobs, and ADQ, led by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed
When two UN atomic watchdog inspectors set off for Iran’s Fordow nuclear plant in January, they gave their Iranian counterparts virtually no notice of the impending visit. It was what the International Atomic Energy Agency terms a routine unscheduled inspection, designed to give staff at one of the Islamic republic’s most secretive facilities as little
Russia’s “dragon teeth” tank traps, minefields and multi-layered fortifications are just one set of obstacles in Ukraine’s budding counteroffensive. Another formidable foe turns out to be airborne, including the Russian Ka-52 “Alligator” attack helicopter. In one of the campaign’s early battles near Orikhiv, in Zaporizhzhia province, a Ukrainian infantry company drove into a minefield and
Power and Progress: Our Thousand Year Struggle over Technology and Prosperity by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson (John Murray/PublicAffairs) Technological progress does promise a better future. But it does not deliver one automatically. If the promise is to be achieved and costs contained, both the technology itself and, still more, its impact must be brought
First-time buyers are struggling to access mortgages as rapidly rising interest rates have cut the number of products for borrowers with small deposits by more than 40 per cent over the past year. According to data provider Moneyfacts, there were 199 products on offer over the weekend for would-be buyers looking to borrow up to
The Bank of England is set to raise its benchmark interest rate to 4.75 per cent on Thursday as it battles an inflation problem that has become more difficult and persistent over the past month. The expected quarter-point rise will mark the 13th consecutive increase in borrowing costs since the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee
6/19/2023, 9:53:28 PM What to watch in Asia today FT reporters China: The People’s Bank of China is scheduled to publish its latest policy rates. Analysts polled by Reuters expect lending benchmarks to be cut for the first time in 10 months amid a slowing post-Covid recovery. Last week the central bank unexpectedly cut a
UBS faces hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties over Credit Suisse’s mishandling of Archegos Capital after Swiss, US and UK regulators completed their investigations into the affair, according to people with knowledge of the probes. Credit Suisse, whose takeover by rival UBS was completed last week, suffered the biggest trading loss in its 167-year
As ructions in the US banking sector demonstrated in March, higher interest rates affect economies in a way that is neither smooth nor linear. Indeed, central bankers have been wary of breaking things as they have rapidly pushed up the cost of credit over the past two years in order to tackle sticky prices. Given
Almost everything in the world is better than it was when I was born, other than the climate. Computers are faster. People live longer. Across most of the world, violent crime is at historic lows. Closer to home, in London, today’s children are much better educated, crime numbers are falling and the restaurants are vastly
Criticism of the Bank of England is growing. Approval rates are now at a record independent-era low. It’s a bit harsh. To their great credit, Bank officials have steered the UK through an inflationary shock driven by factors beyond their control and into an inflationary shock increasingly driven by factors within their control. They’re still
The Ukraine war has revived the transatlantic alliance. But the relationship between the US and its European allies is increasingly lopsided. The US economy is now considerably richer and more dynamic than the EU or Britain — and the gap is growing. That will have an impact well beyond relative living standards. Europe’s dependence on
European equities fell on Monday, dragged down by declines for basic materials stocks, as investors fretted that a slow economic recovery in China would curb demand. Europe’s region-wide Stoxx 600 lost 0.6 per cent, while France’s Cac 40 shed 0.5 per cent and Germany’s Dax fell 0.6 per cent. Trading is expected to be subdued
The cost of a two-year fixed-rate mortgage in the UK rose above 6 per cent on Monday and two-year gilt yields rose to their highest level for 15 years, piling more pressure on homeowners and Rishi Sunak’s government. Mortgage costs have been rising sharply over the past week, ahead of an expected increase in interest
When the Chinese Communist party leadership gathered in Beijing for its quinquennial congress last October, the media spotlight was firmly on President Xi Jinping securing a precedent-shattering third term as China’s unchallenged leader. Overlooked by many at the time was the rise of a new group of political leaders in the top echelons of power
There is an irony in JPMorgan Chase having proved the last straw for Odey Asset Management. Last Monday, the US banking giant agreed to pay up to $290mn to the sex crime survivors of the late Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire who JPM kept on as a lucrative client despite multiple internal warnings about his behaviour.
The UK’s first deep geothermal energy project in nearly four decades will start operating on Monday, a scheme that proponents hope will bolster the case for geothermal energy despite its high costs. Reaching almost 5km below the earth’s surface, the geothermal well at the Eden Project in Cornwall will tap into water of temperatures up