Oil has fallen to its lowest level since June’s conflict began, while stock markets have jumped across Asia and Europe
Travel and leisure stocks across Europe are rallying too.
This has pushed up the STOXX Europe travel and leisure index by 4.1% in early trading, which Reuters reports it the biggest one-day jump since 10 April.
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
The strait of Hormuz: what is it, and why does it matter to global trade?
Price of oil could spike after Iran’s parliament votes to close key shipping route
The eurozone economy has continued to flirt with stagnation this month, with little growth in its key sectors.
The latest survey of purchasing managers across the euro area, just released by S&P Global, shows that the eurozone services sector is stalling this month, while factory growth slowed.
“The eurozone economy is struggling to gain momentum. For six months now, growth has been minimal, with activity in the service sector stagnating and manufacturing output rising only moderately.
In Germany, there are signs of a cautious improvement in the situation, but France continues to drag its feet. The momentum evident in the official growth figure of 0.6 percent for the first quarter is unlikely to have carried over into the second quarter, especially since special factors such as Ireland’s unusual jump in growth inflated this figure.
Continue reading...May figure second highest for month on record amid fears chancellor is struggling to keep within spending rules
Higher tax receipts were unable to prevent a rise in public sector borrowing in May to £17.7bn, up from £17bn a year earlier and the second highest for the month on record.
A poll of City economists had forecast public sector net borrowing – the difference between public spending and income – would be £17.1bn.
Continue reading...Annual rate slows in May from 3.5% in April despite record increase in chocolate prices
Inflation in the UK eased slightly to 3.4% last month as a steep fall in air fares and petrol prices was offset by a jump in the cost of food.
May’s decline in the consumer prices index (CPI), down from the official figure of 3.5% for April, complicates the Bank of England’s interest rates decision on Thursday, although policymakers are still almost certain to hold interest rates at 4.25%.
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
Over at the Paris Air Show, a row has broken out after four Israeli company stands at the trade fair were shut down.
According to Reuters, French authorities ordered that the four stands should be closed for “displaying offensive weapons”, after not complying with an order from a French security agency to remove offensive or kinetic weapons from the stands.
“This outrageous and unprecedented decision reeks of policy-driven and commercial considerations.
“The French are hiding behind supposedly political considerations to exclude Israeli offensive weapons from an international exhibition - weapons that compete with French industries.”
Continue reading...Concerns raised that section 899 could backfire and also undermine dollar’s safe haven status
Foreign investment into the US could be threatened by Donald Trump’s new “revenge” taxes, analysts have warned.
A provision within the president’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act will allow the US to apply higher taxes on foreign individuals, businesses and investors connected to jurisdictions that impose “unfair foreign taxes” on US individuals and companies.
Continue reading...Exclusive: As the shortest day of the year draws near, government study shows how earlier sunsets curb economic activity and public transport trips
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
Daylight saving and its delayed sunsets encourages people to stay out later and spend more money, New South Wales government data shows. The data also found more evening light attracts people to public transport and out of their cars.
Conversely, that uptick in mobility almost entirely vanishes in the days after clocks are wound back an hour, as earlier sunsets cut post-work social and economic activity, the data showed.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...Sale ends state ownership of the banking group, then known as Royal Bank of Scotland, after 2008 rescue
The UK has sold its final shares in NatWest Group, ending 17 years of state ownership since the £45bn taxpayer bailout that saved the bank from collapse at the height of the 2008 financial crisis.
The full privatisation of NatWest is a symbolic moment for the banking group – formerly known as Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) – and draws a line under the most tumultuous chapter in its near 300-year history.
Continue reading...Mauritanian economist who led Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa will succeed Akinwunmi Adesina
The African Development Bank has chosen the Mauritanian economist Sidi Ould Tah as its president-elect after three rounds of voting on Thursday afternoon.
The election took place in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, at the end of the annual meeting of the continent’s biggest multilateral lender.
Continue reading...Wall Street up in early trading after US president commends bloc for calling to ‘quickly establish meeting dates’
Donald Trump has indicated there has been progress in US trade talks with the EU, helping send share prices rising on Wall Street, after he commended the bloc for calling to “quickly establish meeting dates”.
“I have just been informed that the EU has called to quickly establish meeting dates. This is a positive event, and I hope that they will,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday, saying the EU would be “very happy and successful” if it agreed a deal.
Continue reading...Vulnerable countries to pay record $22bn this year, mostly relating to loans issued under Xi Jinping’s belt and road initiative
The most vulnerable nations on Earth are facing a “tidal wave” of debt repayments as a Chinese lending boom starts to be called in, a new report has warned.
The analysis, published on Tuesday by Australian foreign policy thinktank the Lowy Institute, said that in 2025 the poorest 75 countries were on the hook for record high debt repayments US$22bn to China. The 75 nations’ debt formed the bulk of the total $35bn calculated by Lowy for 2025.
Continue reading...European leaders call for ‘lowest possible’ border taxes after levies postponed from 1 June to 9 July
EU leaders have expressed hopes for a quick deal to resolve the trade war with the US after Donald Trump announced he was delaying his threatened 50% tariffs for the bloc until 9 July.
The US president said on Sunday he would pause the border tax due to be imposed on 1 June, which he had announced two days earlier, after what he called a “very nice call” with Ursula von der Leyen.
Continue reading...Enactment of 50% tariffs postponed until July so both sides can ‘reach a good deal’ after pressure from European leaders
Donald Trump has announced that he will pause his threatened 50% tariffs on the European Union until 9 July, after a “very nice call” with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen.
The European Commission president announced in a social media post that she had spoken with Trump and secured the delay to give the two sides more time to negotiate.
Continue reading...G7 finance ministers and central bank governors pledge to address ‘economic imbalances’, without naming China
Top finance officials from the world’s seven wealthiest democracies have set aside stark differences on US tariffs and agreed to counter global “economic imbalances”, a swipe at China’s trade practices.
Ahead of the meeting of G7 finance ministers and central bank governors there had been doubt about whether there would be a final communique, given divisions over US tariffs and Washington’s reluctance to refer to Russia’s war on Ukraine as illegal.
Continue reading...China and Australia cut interest rates; Shell faces protests calling for clean-up in Niger Delta
Here’s our full story on Greggs.
Sales at Greggs have picked up after the UK’s biggest bakery chain branched out into iced drinks, pizza boxes and a macaroni cheese that has gone viral on social media.
These are important issues and we respect the right of people to express their view. But for many years the vast majority of spills in the Niger Delta have been caused by third parties acting unlawfully, such as oil thieves who drill holes in pipelines, or saboteurs.
These challenges are managed by a joint venture which Shell’s former Nigerian subsidiary, SPDC, operated, cleaning up every spill from the joint venture’s facilities.
Continue reading...Impact of agreements on food, energy and defence may not be huge but chancellor believes it will draw investors to UK
Rachel Reeves joked to journalists after Monday’s EU-UK reset that trade deals were coming along “like buses”, given the agreements with India and the US that had also been sealed in the past fortnight alone.
The chancellor described the EU deal as the best that had been secured by any non-member country, but she was also keen to talk about the three successful negotiations as a package.
Continue reading...Proposed rule change could pave way for president to fire economists whose figures prove politically inconvenient
Summarizing his befuddlement with numbers, Mark Twain observed that there were “lies, damned lies and statistics”.
The acerbic phrase later become so deeply embedded in popular consciousness that it once formed the title to an episode of The West Wing, NBC’s portrayal of a fictitious US president played by Martin Sheen.
Continue reading...Loss of Moody’s triple-A rating comes amid concerns about fiscal trajectory and widening budget deficit
US government debt may come under more pressure this week after the credit rating agency Moody’s stripped the US of its top-notch triple-A credit rating.
Moody’s dealt a blow to Washington last Friday, when it downgraded the US and warned about rising levels of government debt and a widening budget deficit. Moody’s cut its credit rating on the US by one notch to Aa1 from Aaa, becoming the last of the big three agencies to downgrade the US.
Continue reading...Sutton Trust ‘opportunity index’ measured factors such as children on free school meals passing key GCSEs
The top 20 constituencies with the best social mobility in England are all in London, according to research from a leading education charity that underscores the stark regional divide in children’s life chances.
In a report published on Thursday, the Sutton Trust has put together an “opportunity index” by analysing six measures of mobility. These include the share of children on free school meals who achieve passes in GCSE maths and English; who complete a degree by age 22; and who make it into the top 20% of earners by age 28.
Continue reading...Bank of England’s Catherine Mann wary of firms looking to rebuild profit margins after a squeeze
Businesses will need to show they are keeping a lid on prices before there can be further interest rate cuts, according to the Bank of England interest rate-setter Catherine Mann.
In a warning to retailers and consumer goods companies to resist pushing up prices by more than the increase in their costs, Mann said she was wary of firms looking to rebuild their profit margins after a squeeze in recent years.
“I need to see the loss of pricing power, I need to see that firms are starting to be much more moderate in setting their prices,” she said.