Healey faces £24bn spending squeeze as inflation puts tax rises in play Economics Chancellor John Healey is facing a £24bn real terms squeeze on the public purse due to higher inflation and will be forced to hike takes to fund the government’s spending plans, a top think tank has warned. Price growth will peak at 3.8 per cent early next year before a slow return to the Bank [...]
UK set to suffer £35bn hit from Iran war as growth downgraded again Economics The UK risks finding itself on the brink of recession as a result of the Iran war, a leading economics think tank has warned, as the potential damage to Rachel Reeves’ fiscal headroom and the threat of interest rates hikes has been laid bare in a new report. In what will come as dire reading [...]
Will the Bank of England raise interest rates amid Iran war energy crisis? Economics Traders are betting on interest rate hikes this year as Rachel Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer have consulted analysts at the Bank of England to monitor the impact of spiralling oil prices on the UK economy. Investors believe interest rates are more likely to rise than fall by the end of the year, with a [...]
Bank of England could raise interest rates over Iran energy price shock March 4, 2026 The Bank of England could raise interest rates this year if energy prices fail to return to levels seen before the start of America’s war with Iran, leading economists have warned. Analysts across the City and at Westminster think tanks have suggested that higher inflation caused by disruption in oil and gas movements across the [...]
Reeves’ Spring Statement gave us little to be cheery about March 4, 2026 Rachel Reeves put on a brave face when she stood up at the dispatch box yesterday afternoon to unveil her Spring Statement. And although we were subjected to the usual staccato delivery, the Chancellor’s performance was more confident than usual. But a cursory glance at the latest Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) projections show there [...]
Cost of hiring graduates shot up after Reeves’ tax raids February 4, 2026 The cost of hiring graduates and other young Brits in entry-level roles increased by seven per cent in real terms after Chancellor Rachel Reeves hiked employers’ national insurance and raised the national living wage, economists have found. A new set of forecasts and analysis by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr) has [...]
Squint hard enough and you can see signs of the AI bubble bursting November 13, 2025 Is the AI bubble bursting? Naturally, most eyes are on the movements of the world’s biggest tech firms – the OpenAIs, the Microsofts, the Nvidias. These are, after all, where a large share of AI investment has been deployed. But for the earliest tell-tale signs, it’s worth looking a lot further down the food chain. [...]
Will the Autumn Budget push up inflation? October 30, 2025 For a few weeks, there was one thing Rachel Reeves appeared to speak about more than anything else: inflation. Earlier this month, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed inflation hit 3.8 per cent in the year to September, nearly double the Bank of England’s target rate. The IMF and the OECD said the UK [...]
OBR ‘downgrades productivity’ in major pre-Budget blow to Rachel Reeves September 16, 2025 The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has reportedly told Chancellor Rachel Reeves that it will downgrade productivity forecasts for the UK economy, blowing a hole in the public finances and making tax hikes all but guaranteed at this year’s November Budget. In another setback for the Labour government, the OBR has informed the Treasury that [...]
UK government borrowing since April hits £60bn August 21, 2025 The UK government borrowed a total of £1.1bn last month, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), compared to £2.3bn last year and below the fiscal watchdog’s £2.6bn forecast. The total deficit hit £60bn in the months since April, which is £6.7bn more than in the same four-month period of 2024 and the third-highest [...]