Economists say while property prices could come down by up to 20%, affordability has ‘never been worse’
House prices in Sydney remain more than 20% above pre-Covid levels despite rising interest rates, as economists warn housing affordability has “never been worse”.
After hitting record highs in January, Sydney house prices have dropped -1.5%, but remain 22.7% above pre-2020 levels, according to CoreLogic data.
Continue reading...Number of flights in August will be below pre-pandemic levels to ensure those on sale are ‘deliverable’
Gatwick airport will reduce its summer capacity to ward off potential chaos, after dozens of last-minute cancellations wrecked the travel plans of holidaymakers over the platinum jubilee and half-term holiday.
London’s second busiest airport will limit the number of daily take-offs and landings to 850 in August – about 50 more than the average in early June, but more than 10% below its pre-pandemic maximum.
Continue reading...Cosmetics company hopes to refinance and keep trading, saying demand for products remains strong
Revlon, the 90-year-old multinational beauty company, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US, weighed down by debt load, disruptions to its supply chain network and surging costs.
The New York-based company said that on court approval, it expects to receive $575m (£469m) in financing from its existing lenders, which will allow it to keep its day-to-day operations running.
Continue reading...The retailer identified the pricing error on its website before any bottles were sold
Mark Twain reputedly said “Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whisky is barely enough”.
Online shoppers at the supermarket Morrisons came close to testing his theory when the retailer accidentally priced bottles of a Scotch whisky at just £2.50, a 93% discount from its usual price of £36.
Continue reading...Centrica says Equinor will deliver enough gas for next three years to heat 4.5m extra homes
The British Gas owner, Centrica, has signed a major supply deal with the Norwegian state oil company, Equinor, as ministers scramble to secure domestic energy supplies.
Equinor has agreed to deliver an additional 1bn cubic metres of gas supplies to the company for each of the next three years, enough to heat an additional 4.5m UK homes.
Continue reading...British crown estate portfolio rises in value by 8.3% to £15.6bn
The value of rights owned by the Queen’s property company to exploit the seabed around Britain’s coastline has swelled to £5bn after a record-breaking auction of plots for offshore windfarms.
Profits for the crown estate, which generates money for the Treasury and the royal family, jumped by £43.4m to £312.7m in the year to the end of March.
Continue reading...Ukraine war, China lockdowns and Brexit help push up inflation, with products that rely on wheat worst hit
Food price rises in the UK could hit 15% this summer – the highest level in more than 20 years – with inflation lasting into the middle of next year, according to a report.
Meat, cereals, dairy, fruit and vegetables are likely to be the worst affected as the war in Ukraine combines with production lockdowns in China and export bans on key food stuffs such as palm oil from Indonesia and wheat from India, the grocery trade body IGD warns.
Continue reading...Fed confirms 0.75 percentage-point increase as Americans across country hit hard by rising prices and shortages of key items
With soaring inflation and the shadow of recession hanging over the United States, the Federal Reserve announced a 0.75 percentage-point increase in interest rates on Wednesday – the largest hike since 1994.
Until this week the Fed had been expected to announce a smaller increase. At a press conference, the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, said the central bank decided that a larger hike was needed after recent economic news, including last week’s announcement that inflation had risen to a 40-year high.
Continue reading...Rachel Reeves says Labour wants to make Britain the best place in the world to start and grow a business
Labour has launched a review of business startup funding driven by a group of industry leaders including the former Goldman Sachs chief economist and Conservative Treasury minister Jim O’Neill as it attempts to improve its credentials with business.
Announcing the review amid concern over the strength of the British economy, Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said Labour wanted to make Britain the best place in the world to start and grow a business.
Continue reading...Christine Lagarde is failing to heed the lesson of last decade’s crisis: act quickly and act clearly
Perhaps the European Central Bank was feeling left out as the financial world turned its attention to the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate hike. But emergency meetings of major central banks are supposed to produce more substance than the weak offering that emerged from Frankfurt after a morning of contemplation: a plan to accelerate work on a “new anti-fragmentation instrument”.
The fragmentation in question is the widening of bond yields between eurozone countries. In short, as interest rate rises have come into view, weaker economies are having to pay meaningfully greater rates to borrow than the likes of Germany – about 2.4 percentage points more in the case of Italy.
Continue reading...Japan’s SoftBank still likely to conduct IPO in New York but could secure secondary listing
The Japanese owner of the British chip designer Arm is reportedly planning to float some of the company’s shares in London, in a sign the government’s efforts to lobby for a UK listing of the Cambridge-based company may have succeeded.
SoftBank, which bought the chip company for $32bn in 2016, is said to be reconsidering earlier plans to only list shares on the US market.
Continue reading...President notes that companies’ profits have tripled during time of war and calls for ‘immediate action’
Joe Biden on Wednesday called on US oil refiners to produce more gasoline and diesel, saying their profits have tripled during a time of war between Russia and Ukraine as Americans struggle with record high prices at the pump.
“The crunch that families are facing deserves immediate action,” the president wrote in a letter to major oil refiners. “Your companies need to work with my Administration to bring forward concrete, near-term solutions that address the crisis.”
Continue reading...Joe Biden working with European governments to avert global crisis and help lower food prices
Temporary silos will be built along the Ukraine border, including in Poland, in an attempt to help export more grain from the country and avert a global food crisis, Joe Biden has announced.
The US president told a Philadelphia union convention on Tuesday that he was working with European governments on the plan “to help bring down food prices”.
Continue reading...Shoppers air frustration at UK fast-fashion retailer’s failure to honour refunds after falling into insolvency
Customers of the collapsed fast fashion retailer Missguided will not receive refunds for returns, administrators of the business have confirmed.
It comes after the Manchester-based company fell into insolvency last month after racking up millions of pounds in outstanding payments to creditors.
Continue reading...Passengers in Great Britain told not to attempt to travel on 21, 23 and 25 June unless necessary
Network Rail said there was “no real hope” of avoiding the biggest railway strike in 30 years next week, as it told passengers to plan ahead and only travel if necessary.
The full timetable will be published on Friday but operators including Southern, Northern, TransPennine and Transport for Wales have already told passengers not to attempt to travel on strike days.
Continue reading...Federal Reserve expected to increase cost of borrowing by 0.75 percentage points to curb rising inflation
The world’s financial markets are bracing themselves for the sharpest rise in US interest rates in almost 30 years, as America’s central bank takes action to halt rising inflation.
After days of frenzied investor speculation and signs of growing central bank anxiety, the Federal Reserve is expected to increase the official cost of borrowing by 0.75 percentage points for the first time since 1994.
Continue reading...Unemployment rise and prospect of new Scottish independence referendum fuel recession fears
The pound has fallen to its lowest level against the dollar since the onset of the Covid pandemic amid growing concern over the strength of the British economy.
Sterling dropped by more than a cent against the dollar to trade below $1.20 on foreign exchange markets for the first time since March 2020, as City traders reacted to mixed figures from the jobs market and the prospect of a fresh referendum on Scottish independence.
Continue reading...Travel firm apologises for ‘distress’ caused by cancelled services as it seeks to regain holidaymakers’ confidence
The travel firm Tui has written to customers promising that it has learned from the delays and cancellations that ruined the May half-term holiday for many travellers, in an attempt to build confidence ahead of the key summer bookings period.
The company apologised again for the disruption to plans, as it prepared to be questioned alongside other industry representatives on Tuesday by MPs on the Commons business select committee which is looking at flight cancellations and compensation.
Continue reading...Call comes after former UN climate envoy urged African countries to exploit their natural gas reserves
Africa must embrace renewable energy, and forgo exploration of its potentially lucrative gas deposits to stave off climate disaster and bring access to clean energy to the hundreds of millions who lack it, leading experts on the continent have said.
Their call came as the UN secretary general, António Guterres, warned that exploring for gas and oil anywhere in the world would be “delusional”.
Continue reading...World’s richest person to take questions from employees amid concerns over attempted takeover
Elon Musk will speak to Twitter employees this week for the first time since launching his $44bn (£36bn) bid in April, a source said on Monday, citing an email from Twitter chief executive, Parag Agrawal, to staff.
The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, and Musk will take questions directly from Twitter employees, the source added.
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