Latest news with #BankofEngland.The
ITV News
21-05-2025
- Business
- ITV News
Utility bills and tax hikes drive inflation higher
All the arrows are pointing in the wrong rose significantly in April on every measure, as prices increased more rapidly across the UK headline annual rate jumped to 3.5%, above the 3.3% economists expected and higher than the 3.4% forecast by the Bank of rise was driven by higher food and energy prices, but core inflation — which strips out both — also climbed, reaching 3.8% last in the services sector, which the Bank monitors closely as a guide to domestic price pressures, increased to 5.4% — a clear signal that wage growth is strong, broad-based, and might sound like good news. But the Bank worries that firms are covering the cost of higher wages by raising prices — fueling a fresh round of inflation. We knew energy and water bills would rise sharply last month, so a rebound in inflation wasn't a surprise. But the key question now is why the rebound was bigger than expected and whether it will last.'This was more than an energy and water story,' says Paul Dales at Capital Economics. He notes that prices for mobile phone and broadband contracts, restaurant meals, vehicle excise duty, package holidays and airfares all rose more than he forecast. Food prices also climbed British Retail Consortium, which represents major supermarkets, blames the Chancellor. The October Budget raised business costs through a higher minimum wage and an increase in national say those costs have now been passed on to consumers - and they're reminding the government that they warned this would happen. The Bank of England predicted the Budget would push up inflation. It's possible, though not yet certain, that firms have responded by raising prices more aggressively than the Bank Chancellor says she is 'disappointed' by the latest inflation data and acknowledges that 'cost-of-living pressures are still weighing down on working people.'Energy bills are the biggest upward force but that pressure may ease soon. Oil prices have fallen significantly since President Trump started his tariff war in earnest. Anyone with a car has likely felt the effect at the pump. Still, a second wave of inflation is buffeting the UK. There's no expectation prices will take off in the way the did from July 2021, but the Bank thinks headline inflation will stay above 3% for several months, peaking at 3.7% in the autumn before gradually will be uncomfortable for many households and painful for those on the lowest also bad news for anyone hoping for cheaper borrowing. Just yesterday, markets were pricing in two interest rate cuts over the next 12 months. This morning, they're betting on just one.
BBC News
13-02-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Rachel Reeves's CV exaggerated time at Bank of England
Rachel Reeves's online CV exaggerates how long she spent working at the Bank of Chancellor left the financial institution nine months earlier than she states in her LinkedIn profile. This means she spent five and a half years working at the bank - including nearly a year studying - despite publicly claiming to have spent a decade the professional networking site LinkedIn, the Chancellor's profile claims she worked at the Bank of England from September 2000 to December BBC News has established she had left by March 2006 when she began working for Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) in West Yorkshire. A photo taken in March 2006 shows her with other HBOS staff at the Council of Mortgage Lenders annual lunch. A former HR lead for the bank who helped with Reeves's relocation also said she could recall her first day and it was in March 2006.A spokesman for Reeves confirmed that dates on her LinkedIn were inaccurate and said it was due to an administrative error by the team. They said the Chancellor hadn't seen it before it was Chancellor has cited her time as an economist at the Bank of England as part of the reason she can be trusted with the nation's finances and has repeatedly claimed to have spent up to 10 years there. In a 2021 magazine interview, which she subsequently posted on X, she said: "I spent a decade working as an economist at the Bank of England and loved it."In a speech to the Labour Party Business Conference in February last year, Reeves said: "I spent the best part of a decade as an economist at the Bank of England." She said the same thing in a speech at a CEO summit in July 2022, and in a video posted on her Facebook page in the same claim was also repeated in a Labour party document last year which stated that she spent "most of the first decade of her career at the Bank of England".As she had already started at HBOS by the spring of 2006, her time at the central bank only amounted to five and half years. This included nearly a year studying for a Masters at the London School of Economics (LSE).Last year, during previous controversy about Reeves's CV, the Bank of England confirmed that Reeves had left in 2006 but refused to give the month of her departure saying it was a detailed staff record which they couldn't also stood for election in Bromley in south-east London more than three months after she had taken a job in West stood in a by-election on 29 June 2006 but had taken up a role at HBOS in March that year and received a relocation package to move from London. It is understood she rented a flat in Leeds and kept a flat in London at this Chancellor's online CV gives incorrect dates for her time at HBOS as well, which her team also acknowledged. It states that she left in December 2009, five months before she was elected to parliament in May fact, we have established, her employment at HBOS finished in mid-May 2009, when she signed a compromise agreement. An invoice for legal advice on the agreement stated that it arose "from a decision by your employer to terminate your employment".The bank was undergoing restructuring at the time of Reeves's departure and a spokesman for the Chancellor said she had taken voluntary redundancy.A compromise agreement, now known as a settlement agreement, is a legal document between an employer and employee which HBOS used when senior managers were made redundant. Reeves was allowed to continue using a company car for six months, according to her then spent a year campaigning ahead of the May 2010 general election without seeking further MP for Leeds West and Pudsey has previously faced accusations that she has embellished her online LinkedIn profile was changed last year to describe her role at HBOS as "Retail Banking".It had previously claimed she worked as an economist at the bank but she instead held a management role in the bank's Customer Relations department, which dealt with November, several MPs raised the row in the House of Commons while putting questions to Deputy Prime Minister Angela prime minister's spokeswoman also faced questions at that time, with journalists asking if Sir Keir expected members of his Cabinet to tell the truth on their spokeswoman said the row related to "the chancellor's time before she was the chancellor"."The prime minister is very clear that what is most important is having a chancellor who is able to balance the books and who is able to be straight with the public and restore the public finances," she added. Rachel Reeves's online CV exaggerates how long she spent working at the Bank of Chancellor left the institution nine months earlier than she states in her LinkedIn profile. This means she spent five and a half years working at the bank - including nearly a year studying - despite publicly claiming to have spent a decade the networking site, the Chancellor's profile claims she worked at the Bank from September 2000 to December 2006, but BBC News has established she had left by March 2006 when she began working for Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS).A spokesman for Reeves confirmed that the dates on LinkedIn were inaccurate and said it was due to an error by the team.
