Such products doing ‘notably better’ than fresh items, data from Kantar reported by BBC shows
British shoppers are switching from fresh to frozen food as they try to keep down spending amid the cost of living crisis, retail data suggests.
The soaring cost of the weekly shop has been a significant factor in the squeeze on UK households, with food price inflation running at 18.2% amid high energy prices and shortages of salad vegetable because of bad weather in Europe.
Continue reading...French hire car met emissions standard but had not been registered with TfL, resulting in penalty notices
A motorist was fined nearly £11,000 for driving his French rental car in London’s ultra-low emission zone on a three-day trip to the UK, despite the fact the vehicle met the environmental standards to enter the Ulez for nothing.
Christian Ducarre received four penalty charge notices (PCNs) after falling foul of a little-known requirement under which foreign vehicles must be registered with Transport for London (TfL) or else be deemed non-compliant by default.
Continue reading...Don Farrell has dismissed talk of any Australian policy shift after breakthrough reached on barley exports
The Australian trade minister says he wants a quick return to normal trade with China but has warned exporters not to put “all of our eggs in one basket”.
In an interview with Guardian Australia, Don Farrell was bullish about the prospect of Australia succeeding in its international challenge against Beijing’s tariffs on Australian barley, saying he thought “we would ultimately win that”.
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Continue reading...Opposition leader says locals are leaving town and tourism numbers are down due to lack of safety. Follow all the day’s news
If the NDIS is improved for people, it will be better for budget, Shorten says
Shorten is being asked about his other portfolio, minister for NDIS. The Grattan Institute yesterday made several recommendations to help rein in the budget, saying the government need to take a hard look at the NDIS.
If we run the scheme better for the person, the participant, the person with severe and profound disabilities. I also think that some of the other anxieties which are about money being wasted, will be dealt with.
We’ve been reforming individual features of the scheme already like getting people who are medically discharged from hospital on the NDIS, not languishing in hospital for months and months. We’ve been reducing some of the legacy cases.
So the budget will no doubt have measures which will be about improving the NDIS for participants but the budget isn’t an end in itself. So we’re doing work right now. There’ll be more work being done, and there’ll be work also finally announced when the review happens.
The bigger piece first of all, is that when the government thinks that someone owes a debt to the government, we’ve got to have a much more methodical transparent process to establish the accuracy of the debt.
The best thing you can do is not make a mistake to begin with – and I mean the government not make a mistake.
Continue reading...At 3.5% the unemployment rate remains near its lowest since the mid-1970s
Australia’s jobless rate held steady last month, with employers adding more than 72,000 full-time positions in the latest sign of resilience in the Australian economy.
The country’s unemployment rate for March was 3.5%, seasonally adjusted, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. Taking into account the drop of part-time roles of just over 19,200, the net jobs gain last month was 53,000.
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Continue reading...Rics monthly poll shows new buyer inquiries in UK are flat as volume of agreed sales falls further
UK house prices are expected to continue to fall despite surveyors’ expectations that the housing market will stabilise over the next 12 months, a study has shown.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ (Rics) monthly survey, which measures the proportion of surveyors reporting new buyer inquiries against those saying they fell, found the net balance was -29% in March, almost flat on the -30% recorded in February.
Continue reading...‘Financial fixers’ alleged to have helped Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov to hide assets are among those targeted
The UK government has imposed sanctions on the “financial fixers” who have allegedly helped the Russian oligarchs Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov hide their assets.
The sanctions, announced by the Foreign Office on Wednesday, are targeted at what officials describe as “oligarch enablers”, whom they accuse of knowingly assisting the billionaire businessmen to shield their wealth.
Continue reading...Billionaire also says pain level from owning site is ‘extremely high’ but the business is ‘breaking even’
Elon Musk, Twitter’s billionaire owner, has said the social media platform will change the BBC’s label of “government-funded media” after the broadcaster objected to the tag.
The Tesla chief executive made the announcement during a wide-ranging interview with the corporation in which he also said his pain level from running the site had been “extremely high” but claimed the business was now “roughly breaking even”.
Continue reading...Greenpeace report finds heavy machinery made by South Korean firm contributing to destruction of Brazilian rainforest
Hyundai is being urged to prevent its heavy machinery products from being used in illegal mining and environmental destruction in the Brazilian Amazon.
A report published by Greenpeace on Wednesday found the South Korean conglomerate’s excavators and other heavy machinery are precipitating the destruction of the rainforest and putting the survival of Indigenous populations at risk.
Continue reading...After government announced deal with China that could end tariffs on barley, wine producers now cautiously optimistic
Australian wine producers hope Beijing could soon remove tariffs that slashed the $1.2bn trade by 99% – but say they are wary about relying too heavily on the Chinese market.
After the Australian government announced a deal with China that could lead to the scrapping of tariffs on barley within months, wine producers also expressed cautious optimism.
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Treasurer flags power bill assistance
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, is giving more specifics about how this IMF report may affect the upcoming May budget. He’s flagging the government will be helping Australians pay their electricity bills.
As we say these forecasts about a decline in the economy are because of these cost of living pressures, which is hurting families and pensioners and people right around Australia.
Because they are expected to be persistent because we expect inflation to be higher than we’d like for longer than we’d like and we do need to deal with in a responsible, methodical way those cost-of-living pressures and so we need to do that in a way that doesn’t make inflation worse.
On the view of the International Monetary Fund, the global economy is on an increasingly perilous path. The situation in the world has become more complex and more challenging even over the course of the last few months. And so we won’t be completely immune from that.
The Treasury does expect our own economy to slow considerably later this year because of that combination of a slowing global economy and the impact of higher interest rates here at home as well. So we’ve got a lot coming at us from around the world.
So is it your view that avoiding a recession is still possible but a lot harder now?
Of course, it’s still possible and it’s still the expectation of the Treasury and the Reserve Bank, and a number of other economic forecasters here in Australia.
But we need to be upfront … and say that a slowing global economy matters to us a great deal, and we do expect our own economy to slow considerably the Treasury and the Reserve Bank are not currently expecting a recession here at home.
Continue reading...Sacked chief says he is ‘shocked’ and allegations have been ‘distorted’
The director general of Britain’s most prominent lobby group is not leaving quietly. On Tuesday morning, hours after learning of his dismissal from the Confederation of British Industry, Tony Danker posted a series of tweets in which he revealed he was “shocked” at the decision, which followed allegations of misconduct.
Some present and former staff did not share in his sense of surprise, they told the Guardian, four weeks after this newspaper first revealed the allegations against him.
Continue reading...Investigation begins after the Guardian reports on complaints against senior figures at business organisation
City of London police have launched an investigation into alleged sexual misconduct at the Confederation of British Industry in the wake of the Guardian’s reports of complaints against senior figures at the organisation.
Britain’s most prominent business group is battling to secure its future after more than a dozen women employed by the CBI claimed to have been victims of various forms of sexual misconduct, including an allegation of rape during a staff party.
Continue reading...Accountancy firm confirms work has stopped on radical scheme after internal concerns about structure
EY has scrapped plans for a radical breakup of its global operations after internal disputes over the potential structure of the new businesses.
The company started laying the groundwork for separating its audit and advisory businesses – under the codename Project Everest – last year, as the big four accounting firms faced mounting criticism about conflicts of interest between the two divisions.
Continue reading...Shares in US firm have fallen almost 50% this week and stock exchange says it is in danger of being delisted
Tupperware, the American plastic food container business founded by the chemist Earl Tupper 77 years ago, has predicted it will go bust unless it can raise emergency funds.
Shares in the Massachusetts firm, which became famous in the 1950s and 1960s when mostly women held “Tupperware parties” to sell its plastic containers with patented “burping” seal, crashed almost 50% this week after it told investors there was “substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Incorrect reporting of rental property income and expenses, and failure to declare capital gains are all in the spotlight
Banks will be compelled to hand over the data of 1.7 million landlords, including transaction details, as part of a tax office crackdown in search of $1.3bn in revenue lost from residential investment properties.
The data-matching program will target people failing to declare rental income or pay capital gains tax, and those incorrectly claiming deductions – including rental property loan interest – to reduce income and negatively gear properties.
Continue reading...In ‘sign of goodwill’, federal government temporarily suspends WTO challenge as China agrees to review its tariffs
The Australian government has reached a deal with China that may lead to the removal of tariffs on Australian barley that were introduced at the height of diplomatic tensions in 2020.
While the axing of the tariffs is not guaranteed, the Australian government presented the snap review as an important “pathway” to resolve one of the most complex trade disputes between the two countries.
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Continue reading...Bridget Archer lauds former shadow minister’s ‘courage and integrity’. Follow live
Japanese hydrogen partners offer only short-term deals, want more funds
There’s been a few articles in the business media lately touting the promise of converting brown coal in Victoria into hydrogen and shipping the fuel to Japan.
Continue reading...Main non-US division pays $7.7bn in corporation tax but $20.7bn in dividends to California parent
Apple’s main Irish subsidiary paid €7.7bn (£6.8bn ) in corporation tax last year, but paid out nearly triple that amount in dividends to its California parent company, after reporting more than $69bn (£56bn) in profits.
The latest financial filings for the subsidiary, which is facing legal challenges over its tax arrangements in Ireland, show the Irish division made the equivalent of nearly $190m a day over the year to September.
Continue reading...While many operators still ply the cross-Channel route, some businesses are focusing instead on domestic trips
It was once the staple for group travel abroad, favoured by school trips and touring retirees alike, but it now looks like Britain could be falling out of love with the continental coach journey.
Many are likely to have been put off for life by chaos at Dover, as people try to get away for the Easter holiday. An estimated 20,000 people got caught up in gridlock last weekend alone after delays in border processing that forced vehicles to queue for up to 14 hours.
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