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UK prime minister Liz Truss and chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng on Friday sought to reassure markets they are serious about bringing down Britain’s debt, by meeting the Office for Budget Responsibility, the official forecaster. Kwarteng’s sidelining of the OBR, an independent institution, in last week’s tax-cutting fiscal statement was seen as having contributed to the chaotic

Liz Truss has vowed to stick to her tax-cutting plans, breaking her silence on the market tumult that followed her government’s fiscal policy announcement last Friday. In a series of interviews on local radio stations, the UK prime minister insisted she would not change course on the economy, saying lower taxes were vital to stave

Allies of Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng have hit back at the IMF’s biting attack on last week’s borrowing and tax cut plans, with Conservative MP Sir John Redwood saying the fund’s verdict reflected “the errors of the past”. After several days of financial turmoil with sterling falling and rising costs for government and mortgage

Hedge fund managers including Crispin Odey are among those profiting from steep falls in sterling and UK government bonds as investors take flight on fears over the sustainability of the country’s public finances. The founder of Odey Asset Management is one of a number of leading hedge fund managers who believe the pound could now

The pound tumbled to a record low on Monday while government bonds extended heavy losses, stirring expectations of an emergency rise in UK interest rates in the wake of chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s package of tax cuts last week. The currency lost as much as 4.7 per cent to trade as low as $1.035 early in

Liz Truss is set to launch a major review of Britain’s visa system to tackle acute labour shortages in key industries in a move that was welcomed by business leaders. The prime minister is set to defy some of her anti-immigration cabinet colleagues by making changes to the “shortage occupation list”, allowing certain industries to

Sterling tumbled against the dollar to below $1.09, hitting its lowest point since 1985, after UK chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng on Friday unveiled a £45bn debt-financed tax-cutting package that sparked a historic increase in borrowing costs. Kwarteng’s political and economic gamble includes the biggest set of tax cuts for 50 years, with the end of the

Sterling has extended its decline to slip below $1.12, the currency’s weakest point since 1985, as the economy veers towards a recession and the government prepares a mini-Budget in which it promises a number of tax cuts. Friday’s 0.75 per cent decline brings the drop for the year to more than 17 per cent, putting

Credit Suisse has drawn up plans to split its investment bank into three and resurrect a “bad bank” holding pen for risky assets, as the Swiss lender attempts to emerge from three years of relentless scandals. Under proposals put forward to the group’s board, Credit Suisse hopes to sell profitable units such as its securitised

Vladimir Putin said Russia’s armed forces would call up its reserves immediately to support its invasion of Ukraine and indicated Moscow would probably annex large swaths of the country’s territory. In an address to his nation that significantly raised the stakes in the war, the Russian president announced “partial mobilisation” ahead of heavily stage-managed votes

Liz Truss has admitted that a UK-US trade deal, long seen as one of the biggest prizes of Brexit, is not on the horizon, as she arrived in New York on her first overseas trip as prime minister. Brexit supporters insisted that the 2016 Leave vote would open the way for a free trade agreement

Members of the congregation, wearing black, are taking their seats in Westminster Abbey in preparation for the funeral service for the late monarch that will begin at 11am. Coaches transporting heads of state and government and others invited to the funeral have been pulling up outside the Abbey, which opened its doors at 8am. Queen

The US central bank will lift its benchmark policy rate above 4 per cent and hold it there beyond 2023 in its bid to stamp out high inflation, according to the majority of leading academic economists polled by the Financial Times. The latest survey, conducted in partnership with the Initiative on Global Markets at the

Wall Street stocks recorded the biggest weekly drop in months after a profit warning from economic bellwether FedEx jolted investors who are already on edge over a looming interest rate rise by the US Federal Reserve at its upcoming meeting. The blue-chip S&P 500 index fell 0.7 per cent on Friday, bringing weekly losses to

Prime Minister Liz Truss and chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng are preparing to launch a last-ditch charm offensive to persuade Japan’s SoftBank to list British tech company Arm in the UK. The government will push for high-level talks with SoftBank executives after the official period of mourning for the Queen ends next week, according to officials with

Kwasi Kwarteng, chancellor, is seeking to scrap Britain’s cap on bankers’ bonuses, introduced after the 2008 financial crash, in a controversial move to boost the City of London’s global competitiveness. Kwarteng argues the move would make London a more attractive destination for top global talent and would be a clear signal of his new “Big

The UK’s rate of inflation eased back into single digits in August on the back of lower petrol prices, providing some relief to households as they go into winter. The headline consumer price index was 9.9 per cent higher than a year earlier during the month, down from a 40-year high of 10.1 per cent

Ukraine still faces “a tough fight” after Russia gave up most of the territory it had taken near Kharkiv following a lightning counteroffensive that forced many retreating troops to leave the country, according to the Pentagon. A senior military official said on Monday that Russian forces “had largely ceded their gains” around Ukraine’s second-largest city

Ukraine needs to secure the vast territory it has recaptured from possible Russian counter-attack, the country’s defence minister has warned, as he said Kyiv’s lightning offensive had gone far “better than expected”. The attack has routed the Kremlin’s forces, led to the recapture of some 3,000 sq km of Ukrainian territory and prompted an unusual

Russia abandoned military strongholds in northeastern Ukraine on Saturday in an apparent rout of its front line positions, after Ukrainian forces pushed forward in a lightning advance that has left Moscow’s forces in disarray. Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had pulled back from the strategic city of Izyum, claiming it had decided to “regroup” and transfer