Latest news with #WilliamSchomberg
Zawya
22-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
UK public finances show 20 billion-pound deficit in April
MANCHESTER, England: Britain's government borrowed 20.155 billion pounds ($27 billion) in April, official data showed on Thursday. A Reuters poll of economists showed a median forecast of 17.9 billion pounds for public sector net borrowing. ($1 = 0.7447 pounds) (Reporting by Andy Bruce Editing by William Schomberg)
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bank of England set to cut rates amid worries about Trump tariff fallout
By William Schomberg LONDON (Reuters) -The Bank of England is poised to extend its slow run of interest rate cuts on Thursday with investors watching for any signs that it could soon pick up the pace as U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs weigh on the world economy. Governor Andrew Bailey and his BoE colleagues have long stressed the need for a gradual and careful approach to lowering borrowing costs, something most analysts say is likely to continue given the scale of uncertainty about the outlook. The BoE has cut rates just three times so far since last August, moving more slowly than the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank due to its concerns about inflationary heat in the jobs market. Although Britain's economy is far from robust, its growth this year looks set to be faster than in Germany and France. But Bailey has recently stressed the risks to the economy from the surge in global trade tensions. On Wednesday, the Fed kept its key interest rate on hold and said uncertainty about the economic outlook had increased with higher risks of a rise in both unemployment and inflation. A latest quarter-point cut by the BoE is widely expected on Thursday and investors are almost fully pricing in three more reductions by the end of 2025 which would take its benchmark Bank Rate to 3.5% from 4.5% at the moment. Most economists polled by Reuters last month expected the BoE to remain on its once-a-quarter rhythm which would leave Bank Rate at 3.75% at year-end. But BofA Global Research analysts said they now saw four BoE rate reductions to come this year with UK inflation set to rise by less than previously thought, in part due to cheaper imports from China which have been effectively shut out of the U.S. However, it was probably too soon for the BoE to change its stance on the way forward. "For now, we expect the BoE to retain the careful, gradual and meeting-by-meeting guidance, in the midst of uncertainty," the BofA analysts said. BNP Paribas Europe economist Dani Stoilova predicted the BoE's new forecasts would show inflation returning to the central bank's 2% target at the end of 2026, a year earlier than the BoE previously expected. However, Bailey and the rest of the Monetary Policy Committee would probably want to wait and see if Trump's tariffs and retaliation by China and other countries ultimately push up inflation by damaging supply chains, she said. The BoE is due to announce its May interest rate decision and its latest economic forecasts at 1102 GMT - two minutes later than usual to avoid disrupting a moment of silence to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two in Europe.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bank of England set to cut rates amid worries about Trump tariff fallout
By William Schomberg LONDON (Reuters) -The Bank of England is poised to extend its slow run of interest rate cuts on Thursday with investors watching for any signs that it could soon pick up the pace as U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs weigh on the world economy. Governor Andrew Bailey and his BoE colleagues have long stressed the need for a gradual and careful approach to lowering borrowing costs, something most analysts say is likely to continue given the scale of uncertainty about the outlook. The BoE has cut rates just three times so far since last August, moving more slowly than the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank due to its concerns about inflationary heat in the jobs market. Although Britain's economy is far from robust, its growth this year looks set to be faster than in Germany and France. But Bailey has recently stressed the risks to the economy from the surge in global trade tensions. On Wednesday, the Fed kept its key interest rate on hold and said uncertainty about the economic outlook had increased with higher risks of a rise in both unemployment and inflation. A latest quarter-point cut by the BoE is widely expected on Thursday and investors are almost fully pricing in three more reductions by the end of 2025 which would take its benchmark Bank Rate to 3.5% from 4.5% at the moment. Most economists polled by Reuters last month expected the BoE to remain on its once-a-quarter rhythm which would leave Bank Rate at 3.75% at year-end. But BofA Global Research analysts said they now saw four BoE rate reductions to come this year with UK inflation set to rise by less than previously thought, in part due to cheaper imports from China which have been effectively shut out of the U.S. However, it was probably too soon for the BoE to change its stance on the way forward. "For now, we expect the BoE to retain the careful, gradual and meeting-by-meeting guidance, in the midst of uncertainty," the BofA analysts said. BNP Paribas Europe economist Dani Stoilova predicted the BoE's new forecasts would show inflation returning to the central bank's 2% target at the end of 2026, a year earlier than the BoE previously expected. However, Bailey and the rest of the Monetary Policy Committee would probably want to wait and see if Trump's tariffs and retaliation by China and other countries ultimately push up inflation by damaging supply chains, she said. The BoE is due to announce its May interest rate decision and its latest economic forecasts at 1102 GMT - two minutes later than usual to avoid disrupting a moment of silence to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two in Europe.
Zawya
16-04-2025
- Business
- Zawya
UK house prices rose by most in over two years in February, official data shows
LONDON - British house prices rose at their fastest pace in more than two years in the 12 months to February, according to official data published on Wednesday. Average house prices rose by an annual 5.4% to 268,000 pounds ($355,556) in February, the fastest increase since December 2022 and up from a 4.8% increase in January, the Office for National Statistics said. The expiry at the end of March of temporary tax incentives for buyers of less expensive homes as well as for first-time buyers encouraged potential purchasers to move ahead more quickly with their plans in the months leading up to the change. Other, more forward-looking measures of the housing market showed a weakening of demand in March as buyers ran out of time to get the discount. Private-sector rents across Britain in March were 7.7% higher than in March last year at 1,332 pounds a month, slowing from February's 8.1% annual rise, the ONS said. ($1 = 0.7537 pounds) (Writing by William Schomberg; editing by David Milliken)
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
UK shoppers raised their spending in March in face of Trump's tariff onslaught
By William Schomberg LONDON (Reuters) - British shoppers spent more last month even as worries about the global economy grew in the run-up to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff increases, according to data published on Tuesday. The British Retail Consortium said sales at its member stores - mostly large retail chains - rose by 1.1% year-on-year in March, matching February's increase. The increase would have been bigger were it not for the Easter holiday falling in April this year unlike in 2024 when it was in March, boosting sales in that month, the BRC said. "Despite a challenging global geopolitical landscape, the small increase in both food and non-food sales masked signs of underlying strengthening of demand," BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said. A separate measure of overall consumer spending published by Barclays painted a less upbeat picture. Barclays said spending rose by 0.5% in March compared with the same month last year, slowing from February's 1.0% increase and weaker than the rate of inflation. However, its figures also did not adjust for Easter falling in different months in 2024 and 2025. Warm weather helped garden centres and specialist food and drink shops but supermarket sales were down by 2.6%. Jack Meaning, chief UK economist at Barclays, said a drop in confidence among consumers highlighted the risk of a pullback in spending in the coming months. "We expect spending to remain muted through mid-2025, before picking up into 2026 as interest rates easing starts to be felt and uncertainty begins to normalise," Meaning said. Two in three of consumers surveyed by Barclays after Trump's tariff increase announcement earlier this month were worried that imported products would become more expensive and 71% said they planned to buy more "Made in Britain" items. A third survey published on Tuesday showed company bosses turned negative on the outlook for the first time since the end of 2022 as worries about a tax increase on employers added to the concerns about Trump's tariffs. The measure of business confidence published by Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales dropped to -3 in the first three months of 2025 from +0.2 in the previous quarter. Employment growth was its weakest in almost four years, reflecting the impact of finance minister Rachel Reeves' decision to raise social security contributions for employers from this month. (Writing by William Schomberg; editing by Suban Abdulla) Sign in to access your portfolio
