DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Bank of England raises interest rates again, sees inflation falling
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Sounding more upbeat about the outlook for the country's slow pace of economic growth, the BoE's nine rate-setters voted 7-2 in favour of a 25 basis-point increase in Bank Rate to 4.25%. "The MPC will continue to monitor closely any effect on the credit conditions faced by households and businesses, and hence the impact on the macroeconomic and inflation outlook," it said. On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve raised its main interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point, and indicated it was on the verge of pausing further increases. However, it said it expected wages to rise slightly less than it had previously forecast, as inflation expectations fell. The BoE was the first major central bank to start raising rates in December 2021 and until this week had seemed likely to join the Bank of Canada which this month stopped raising borrowing costs.

The BoE is due to announce on Thursday whether it has raised interest rates for an 11th meeting in a row. The annual inflation rate in the services sector, which most policymakers consider is a good measure of underlying price pressures in the economy, rose to 6.6% after standing at 6.0% in January. Finance minister Jeremy Hunt said the data showed the expected decline in inflation could not be taken for granted. "Falling inflation isn't inevitable, so we need to stick to our plan to halve it this year," Hunt said in a statement. Reporting by David Milliken and William Schomberg, editing by William JamesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Bank of England welcomes Credit Suisse deal, says UK banks are safe
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Logos of Swiss banks UBS and Credit Suisse are seen in Zurich, Switzerland March 19, 2023. REUTERS/Moritz HagerLONDON, March 19 (Reuters) - The Bank of England welcomed moves by the Swiss authorities to broker a take-over by UBS of Credit Suisse on Sunday, indicating it would support approval of the deal, and it said the British banking system was well funded. UBS (UBSG.S) agreed to buy rival Swiss bank Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) for 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.23 billion) in stock and assume up to 5 billion francs ($5.4 billion) in losses in a merger engineered by Swiss authorities. "The UK government welcomes the steps taken today by the Swiss authorities in relation to Credit Suisse to support financial stability, and will continue to engage with the FCA and the Bank of England as is usual," a finance ministry spokesperson said. ($1 = 0.9280 Swiss francs)Reporting by Alistair Smout and Huw Jones Editing by William SchombergOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Bank of England to start repo operations at 0815 GMT on Monday
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

LONDON, March 19 (Reuters) - The Bank of England said it would hold the first of its new, daily seven-day maturity repo operations - part of a global central bank response to the crisis at Credit Suisse - at 0815 GMT on Monday. The BoE along with the Bank of Canada, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the Federal Reserve and the Swiss National Bank said jointly on Sunday they would enhance liquidity provision via new standing U.S. dollar liquidity swap lines. Reporting by William SchombergOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

A 25 basis-point rise would take Bank Rate to 4.25%, where most economists said it would stay for at least a year. But investors have turned more doubtful about the BoE's appetite for more rate hikes in recent days amid mounting anxieties about the global banking sector. Interest rate futures on Friday showed traders were putting a roughly 50-50 chance on the BoE maintaining Bank Rate at 4% next week. Investors expect a 25 basis-point rate hike from the U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday, a day before the BoE's announcement. Forty-two of 47 economists polled by Reuters between March 13-16 expected the BoE to announce a 25 basis-point hike, hold Bank Rate at 4.25% for at least year and then lower it.

☆ UK drops plan to tax sovereign wealth funds
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, March 17 (Reuters) - British finance minister Jeremy Hunt has dropped a plan to tax sovereign wealth funds investing in Britain, according to a government document. The report, detailing the measures in a budget plan announced by Hunt on Wednesday, said "the government has carefully considered" responses to its consultation on the immunity of sovereign funds from direct taxation. The FT said business and trade minister Kemi Badenoch had urged the Treasury to drop the proposals out of concern that sovereign funds might pull out of projects in Britain. Sovereign wealth funds from the Middle East and elsewhere have been big investors in some British infrastructure projects as well as in commercial property. Writing by William Schomberg; editing by William JamesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ UK's Labour attacks planned pension changes as giveaway to the rich
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Kate Holton | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON, March 16 (Reuters) - Britain's opposition Labour Party vowed on Thursday to reverse the government's planned pension changes, saying they were a giveaway to the top 1% of pension savers at a time when many households are being hit by tax increases and high inflation. "The budget was a chance for the government to unlock Britain's promise and potential," Rachel Reeves, Labour's would-be finance minister said. Some long-serving senior doctors have cut back their hours or retired early as they near the lifetime pension limit, adding to strains in the National Health Service (NHS). The focus on tax support for the wealthiest had echoes of the criticism that met the "mini-budget" of former Prime Minister Liz Truss and her finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng in September. They were later forced to reverse their plan to scrap the top rate of income tax for Britain's highest earners.

"Since mid-October, 10-year gilt rates have fallen, debt servicing costs are down, mortgage rates are lower and inflation has peaked. The International Monetary Fund says our approach means the UK economy is on the right track." [1/6] Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt holds the budget box on Downing Street in London, Britain March 15, 2023. The OBR forecast economic output would grow by 1.8% in 2024 and by 2.5% in 2025, Hunt said, compared with its previous forecasts for growth of 1.3% and 2.6% respectively. Many economists have said Hunt probably wants to hold back some fiscal firepower for closer to the next national election.

[1/6] Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt holds the budget box on Downing Street in London, Britain March 15, 2023. The International Monetary Fund says our approach means the UK economy is on the right track." After the shocks of Brexit, a heavy COVID-19 hit and double-digit inflation, Britain's economy is the only one among Group of Seven nations yet to recover its pre-pandemic size, having already suffered a decade of near-stagnant income growth. "Despite continuing global instability, the OBR report today that inflation in the UK will fall from 10.7% in the final quarter of last year to 2.9% by the end of 2023," Hunt said. Many economists have said Hunt probably wants to hold back some fiscal firepower for closer to the next national election.

The immediate outlook is less sombre: The economy is due to shrink by 0.2% in 2023, not 1.4% as previously thought. It also said Hunt's three-year business investment incentives would bring investment forward at a cost to later years. "We're on track to meet the - relatively loose, poorly designed - fiscal rule on paper only," he said. "It's even more important that the government builds on the measures presented today and produces a more comprehensive plan for boosting growth." ($1 = 0.8282 pounds)($1 = 0.8283 pounds)Writing by William Schomberg, Editing by Angus MacSwanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ UK pay growth slows as Bank of England mulls rates pause
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Pay excluding bonuses rose by 6.5% compared with 6.7% in the three months to December. Total pay grew by an annual 5.7% in the November-to-January period, slowing from 6.0% in the previous figures, the Office for National Statistics said. Despite the still strong pace of pay growth, earnings were further diminished by an inflation rate that stood above 10% in January. Total pay fell by 4.4% in real terms, the biggest drop since early 2009. "The jobs market remains strong, but inflation remains too high," finance minister Jeremy Hunt said after the data was published, a day ahead of his budget speech.

☆ Hunt, hemmed in by debt, set to focus on growth in UK budget
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( William Schomberg | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Instead, hemmed in by his promise to lower the burden of Britain's 2.5 trillion pounds ($3.0 trillion) of debt, Hunt will seek to tackle some of the causes of Britain's long-term economic funk. "In the autumn we took difficult decisions to deliver stability and sound money," Hunt is due to say, according to excerpts of his budget speech. "Today, we deliver the next part of our plan: a budget for growth," he adds. Labour's would-be finance minister, Rachel Reeves, sought to keep the heat on Hunt by calling for urgent action now. In an attempt to soften that tax hit, Hunt has hinted at new incentives for business investment.

☆ UK employers feel the strain of missing skilled workers
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( William Schomberg | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

But past attempts to train up more workers have seen the problem get worse by some measures, and any big improvement to the post-16 skills system is likely to take years. TRAINING REVAMPWithout a rapid overhaul of the training system, Britain's pool of highly skilled adults is likely to shrink further relative to other countries, the OECD has warned. Employers groups are calling on Hunt to tackle a key part of how training is funded in his budget speech. Corporate leaders acknowledge employers also need to do more themselves, and prioritize training even in lean times. "You're slowing down really quite a lot to go at the pace of the education system," he said of his company, which began as a print management firm in 1996.

"HSBC is Europe's largest bank, and SVB UK customers should feel reassured by the strength, safety and security that brings them," Britain's finance minister Jeremy Hunt said. The Bank of England said it had organised the sale to underpin confidence in the financial system and minimise any fallout for British technology firms. "This acquisition makes excellent strategic sense for our business in the UK," HSBC CEO Noel Quinn said in a statement. The Bank of England said SVB UK had a total balance sheet size of around 8.8 billion pounds. Other potential buyers for SVB UK had included Bank of London, which said on Sunday it had submitted a formal proposal.

☆ Investors bet more on the Bank of England pausing rate hikes
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

LONDON, March 13 (Reuters) - Investors bet more heavily on Monday on the possibility that the Bank of England will halt its run of interest rate increases at its March meeting next week after the failure of U.S. lender Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Interest rate futures put the chance of no change in Bank Rate on March 23 at about 40%, up from 25% earlier on Monday and around 10% last week. Bets on a quarter-percentage point rate hike fell to about 60%. The move followed a similar drop in expectations about a rate hike by the Federal Reserve this month after U.S. authorities announced plans to limit the fallout from the collapse of SVB. Writing by William Schomberg, editing by Andy BruceOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

WASHINGTON/SINGAPORE, March 13 (Reuters) - U.S. authorities launched emergency measures on Sunday to shore up confidence in the banking system after the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SIVB.O) threatened to trigger a broader financial crisis. Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a mainstay for the startup economy, was a product of the decades-long era of cheap money, with unique risks that made it especially vulnerable. With the Fed poised to continue raising interest rates, investors said the financial system may not be fully out of the woods just yet. Goldman Sachs' analysts said they no longer expect it to raise rates at that meeting, amid the stress in the banking sector. A senior U.S. Treasury official said the actions taken would protect depositors, while providing additional support to the broader banking system, but officials and regulators were continuing to monitor financial system stability.

[1/2] A notice hangs on the door of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) located in San Francisco, California, U.S. March 10, 2023. "Silicon Valley Bank cannot be allowed to fail given the vital community it serves," Bank of London co-founder and CEO Anthony Watson said. But an executive at a major UK bank said it was unlikely a high street lender would buy SVB UK because its credit products would not be a good fit for a mainstream bank. EXISTENTIAL THREATMore than 250 UK tech firm executives signed a letter addressed to Hunt on Saturday calling for government intervention and warned of an "existential threat" to the UK tech sector, a copy seen by Reuters shows. Sunak has said he wants to turn Britain into the "next Silicon Valley".

☆ UK races to minimise SVB fallout amid reports of potential buyers
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( Andrew Macaskill | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

[1/2] A notice hangs on the door of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) located in San Francisco, California, U.S. March 10, 2023. SoftBank-owned lender OakNorth Bank is weighing a bid to buy Silicon Valley Bank UK Ltd, a person with knowledge of the talks told Reuters, confirming a Sky News report. EXISTENTIAL THREATMore than 250 UK tech firm executives signed a letter addressed to Hunt on Saturday calling for government intervention and warned of an "existential threat" to the UK tech sector, a copy seen by Reuters shows. Hunt reiterated comments by the BoE that overall, Silicon Valley Bank had a limited presence in Britain and did not perform functions critical to the financial system. Sunak has said he wants to turn Britain into the "next Silicon Valley".

☆ UK government should focus on younger workers, not just over-50s, employers say
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( David Milliken | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Unlike in most other rich countries, Britain's labour force is still notably smaller than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. But the CIPD pointed to the high number of younger people who were outside the labour market. "It's important that the current focus on addressing the decline of over-50s in employment doesn't obscure the need and opportunity to get more young people into work," CIPD economist Jon Boys said. In January he urged those who had retired early to do more than just play golf. However, many people who have retired early are not under financial pressure to go back to work, while those who are unwell can face long waits for medical treatment.

The Treasury said late on Saturday that Hunt would offer financial incentives for parents with young children, disabled people and others to rejoin the workforce in his tax and spending budget plan on Wednesday. The government said it hopes the announcements this week will get hundreds of thousands of people into work. Hunt also plans to allow disabled people and those with long-term health conditions to work without removing their supplementary financial support, the Treasury said. "A Conservative government will always cut taxes when we can, but we won't run out of money. We will be responsible with the public finances," he told Sky News.

☆ UK finance minister Hunt says he can't rush into tax cuts
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, March 11 (Reuters) - British finance minister Jeremy Hunt said he wanted to lower tax rates for individuals and especially businesses in the longer term but warned it would take time because the economy needed to grow more quickly first. Hunt, who is due to present his budget on Wednesday, said in an interview broadcast on Saturday that lower tax rates were only possible once the economy was on a sustainable path to growth. "What we're trying to do is to increase the productive capacity of the economy and a highly taxed, highly regulated economy has less productive capacity," he said. Hunt hinted that he would first look at measures to encourage business investment through incentives. Reporting by Sarah Young Editing by William SchombergOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

LONDON, March 10 (Reuters) - Children returning to school after an illness-ravaged December provided an unexpected, one-off boost to Britain's economy in January, when growth in output exceeded forecasts, data showed on Friday. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Britain's economy expanded 0.3% month-on-month, after a drop of 0.5% in December - a reading that is likely to further allay recession fears. ONS Director of Economic Statistics Darren Morgan said the economy had shown zero growth over the last three months and the past year. The ONS said half of the 0.3% growth rate comprised the education sector, as a result of children returning to school after a significant drop in attendance in December. Fear of contracting COVID-19 over Christmas may also have contributed to children being taken out of school early.

☆ UK's Hunt to keep tight budget with eye on 2024 election
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( William Schomberg | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

He and Hunt told investors that Britain was not ripping up the economic orthodoxy after all. It's the election timetable," Resolution Foundation chief executive Torsten Bell said in a panel discussion about the budget this week. Until now, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has been less pessimistic about growth than the Bank of England (BoE). Last month, the BoE said GDP would show no growth at all over 2024 and 2025 after a 0.5% fall in 2023. Hunt has said he will lay out economic growth measures in the budget, including ways to address the fall in the size of Britain's workforce.

☆ SoftBank's Arm rebuffs London by choosing U.S. listing
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Paul Sandle | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The company did not completely rule out an eventual London listing, saying it intended to consider a subsequent IPO there in due course, without providing further details. London worked hard to get the listing, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Arm Chief Executive Rene Haas meeting in Downing Street last month, according to reports. The loss follows a decision by Dublin-based building materials giant CRH on Thursday to move its primary listing from London to the United States. Arm has pushed into markets beyond smartphones, such as data center servers, where its low-power designs can cut energy use. It immediately identified New York as its preferred destination, where the company will join the likes of Intel, Qualcomm and Nvidia.

☆ Guns N' Roses and Arctic Monkeys to headline Glastonbury along with Elton John
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Sumaya HishamLONDON, March 3 (Reuters) - Guns N' Roses and Arctic Monkeys will join Elton John as headliners at the Glastonbury Festival in June, organisers said on Friday, drawing attention to the largely male line-up of its biggest performers this year. The festival's official poster gave U.S. rapper Lizzo joint headline billing but she was the lone, high-profile female performer among the main acts this year. Paul McCartney, 80, played last year's Glastonbury, as the festival returned from a three-year absence due to the coronavirus pandemic. While English rock act Arctic Monkeys will be making their third appearance as headliners at Glastonbury following the release of a new album in October, it will be the first time for American rock legends Guns N' Roses, who will be touring Europe in June. Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar, Editing by Paul Sandle and William SchombergOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Search resuls for: "William Schomberg"

25 mentions found