UK economy falters as deeper damage to growth to come Economics The UK economy lost momentum in April, official data has revealed, as the energy price shock from the Iran war took its toll on businesses and consumers. The Office for National Statistics said GDP declined by 0.1 per cent in April. The services sector contracted by 0.2 per cent while manufacturing output did not post [...]
World Bank: Global economy ‘more resilient than expected’ Economics The global economy has been “markedly more resilient than expected” against a hostile backdrop of geopolitical and trade uncertainty, according to the World Bank which has upgraded its growth forecast for 2026. In its biannual assessment of the international economic outlook, the world’s preeminent financial body said that the “limited” pass-through of tariffs onto prices [...]
Government climate tsar picks up enough air miles for six trips around the world Politics The government’s climate envoy has totted up more than 150,000 airmiles since she was appointed by Labour, in trips to conferences such as COP 30. That’s more than six times the circumference of the earth. Rachel Kyte reports directly to energy secretary Ed Miliband and foreign secretary Yvette Cooper. The role of climate envoy had [...]
The World Bank should focus on poverty, not climate change November 10, 2025 Research repeatedly shows that pound for pound, core development investments — like improving maternal health, advancing e-learning, or enhancing agricultural yields — deliver much greater and faster benefits than climate spending, writes Bjorn Lomborg With Cop30 underway in Brazil, the United States has told the World Bank to stop obsessing about climate and get back to [...]
Global growth to brake to ‘slowest pace’ since financial crash, World Bank says June 10, 2025 The world economy is heading for its worst year since the 2008 financial crash, the World Bank has predicted, as most major economies suffered a growth downgrade due to trade tensions sparked by President Trump’s tariffs. The UN-backed financial institution has predicted that global growth will come down to 2.3 per cent this year as [...]
US-UK trade announcement: “this isn’t a deal, it’s an amuse-bouche” May 9, 2025 The morning after the US-UK trade agreement was announced, experts are beginning to wrap their heads around what the deal entails, and reactions are trickling in. The overriding sense is that in the absence of any granular detail on what the deal means for several industries, there is still hope that the UK government can [...]
Tariff talks to dominate IMF-World Bank meetings April 21, 2025 Finance ministers are poised to use this week’s International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank’s gathering to strike up trade deals with bilateral partners as uncertainty continues to swirl around Donald Trump’s tariff plan. Senior politicians and economic heavyweights are flocking to Washington for the biannual gathering put on by the two global agencies, with [...]
High commodity prices could keep inflation elevated, World Bank warns April 25, 2024 The World Bank has predicted that commodity prices will fall just three per cent in 2024 and four per cent in 2025.