Category: News

Opec and its allies on Thursday agreed to accelerate oil production in July and August, as the cartel’s linchpin Saudi Arabia bowed to US pressure to cool a crude price rally that has threatened to stall the global economy. The cartel said it would increase output by almost 650,000 barrels a day in both months,…

The chief executive of Germany’s top asset management firm DWS Group has resigned after the company’s offices were raided by police over allegations of greenwashing. DWS said in a statement on Wednesday morning that Asoka Wöhrmann, chief executive since late 2018, had resigned with effect from June 10, the day after the group’s annual meeting.…

Eurozone inflation rose faster than expected in the year to May, setting a new record for the single currency bloc of 8.1 per cent and piling pressure on the European Central Bank to speed up the withdrawal of its ultra-loose monetary policy. The surge in eurozone price growth, from 7.4 per cent the previous month,…

Oil rose higher than $120 a barrel on Monday as tightness in refined fuel markets and concern over supplies from Russia propelled prices to the highest level in two months. Brent crude, the international benchmark, hit a two-month high of $120.50 a barrel in early trading, up 1 per cent ahead of the July contract’s…

The UK tax authority has admitted it has no idea how much tax is being evaded by UK residents holding money offshore, after new figures revealed hundreds of billions of pounds was held in tax havens. HM Revenue & Customs disclosed in freedom of information requests that UK residents had £850bn in financial accounts overseas…

EY is exploring a public listing or partial sale of its global advisory business as part of the most radical transformation of a Big Four accountancy firm in two decades, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. A stake sale or listing would raise the prospect of a massive windfall for EY’s existing…

UK chancellor Rishi Sunak said his latest package of support for UK households will have a “minimal impact” on inflation after the government announced a windfall tax on energy companies to fund lower fuel bills. “Our estimate and my view is that it will have a minimal impact on inflation,” Sunak told Sky News on…

Starliner is built to transport up to seven passengers © Nasa/Ingalls via Boeing Boeing’s Starliner space capsule returned to Earth on Wednesday after docking successfully at the International Space Station in a much-needed victory for the aerospace group as it contends with an array of production delays. Starliner was launched last Thursday atop a United…

Boris Johnson must “bear responsibility” for the culture in Downing Street during the pandemic that allowed repeated breaking of Covid rules, senior civil servant Sue Gray concluded in her long-awaited verdict on the partygate scandal. Gray’s 37-page report — plus photographs — is an indictment of lawbreaking and drinking in 10 Downing Street in the…

Auditors and tax advisers in the UK are lobbying the government for exemptions from a ban on working for businesses in Russia imposed after the invasion of Ukraine. Foreign secretary Liz Truss this month announced plans to force British accounting, management consulting and public relations firms to cut ties with Russian clients as part of…

US president Joe Biden has pledged to defend Taiwan militarily if China were to invade in remarks made during his first visit to Japan. “Yes. That is the commitment we made,” Biden said at a joint news conference in Tokyo when asked whether he was willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan. Speaking alongside…

The EU’s decision to suspend its deficit and debt rules for an extra year is not an excuse for member states to persist with loose spending policies, Germany’s finance minister Christian Lindner has said, in a call for more fiscal discipline. “The fact that member states are now able to deviate from the Stability and…

China is intensifying its drive for influence in the Pacific by negotiating security deals with two additional island nations following a pact with the Solomon Islands, according to officials in the US and allied countries. Beijing’s talks with Kiribati, a Pacific island nation 3,000km from Hawaii where US Indo-Pacific Command is based, are the most…

Huw Pill, the Bank of England’s chief economist, said on Friday that it was “crucial” to ensure that the UK avoids stoking an “inflationary psychology” and indicated he supported further interest rate rises. With inflation having reached a 40-year high in April, Pill said that prices rising at more than four times the central bank’s…

Shares in Chinese technology companies led declines across the Asia-Pacific region in the wake of Wall Street’s worst day since the early months of the coronavirus pandemic as concerns mounted over global growth. Hong Kong-listed shares in Tencent fell as much as 8.6 per cent on Thursday after the Chinese internet group reported its slowest…

UK inflation hit 9 per cent in April, its highest level in over 40 years, after soaring gas and electricity bills intensified the cost of living crisis facing households. The rate of consumer price inflation was close to economists’ expectations and is almost double the rate the Bank of England expected only six months ago.…

UK unemployment fell to its lowest level in nearly half a century in the first quarter of 2022, with almost a million people switching jobs as the number of vacancies rose to a new high of 1.3mn. The Office for National Statistics said the jobless rate stood at 3.7 per cent in the three months…

China’s economic activity contracted sharply in April as a wave of lockdowns across the country posed the most significant challenge to its growth prospects since Covid-19 emerged over two years ago. Retail sales, the country’s main gauge of consumer activity which had already entered contraction in March, slumped 11.1 per cent year on year, compared…

Saudi Aramco has reported $39.5bn in earnings in the first quarter of 2022, up 82 per cent year on year due to the surge in global energy prices as a consequence of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Aramco — which last week overtook Apple as the world’s most valuable company — declared that it would pay…

Global stocks rose on Friday but were on track for their longest streak of weekly losses since the 2008 financial crisis, as fears over inflation and an economic slowdown continued to stalk markets. The FTSE All World index, which is on track for a 3.9 per cent fall this week in its sixth straight week…