The news this morning are all about Rachel Reeves’s spring statement, as businesses and consumers alike digest the Chancellor’s economic update. The Times claims Reeves ”will take the tax burden to record levels” despite a £14bn round of spending cuts, in a piece looking at the winners and losers of the spring statement.
The Chancellor defended herself in an exclusive opinion piece for the paper, claiming Labour’s plans were starting to bear fruit - despite the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) halving the UK’s growth prospects for 2025 to 1%.
Meanwhile, food manufacturers’ confidence plummeted to -47% in the final three months of last year as companies felt the heat from measures announced in the October budget, The Guardian reported.
The current economic landscape has led to a drastic fall in food industry business confidence, the FDF revealed yesterday amid sticky inflationary pressures and an onslaught of taxes. Read The Grocer’s coverage here.
Over in the US, Donald Trump has announced a fresh round of 25% tariffs on all car imports. The developing story is being covered by all the big outlets including the BBC and Sky News.
The latter has also spoken to Chancellor Reeves earlier this morning, who reiterated the UK ”doesn’t want to escalate” Trump’s trade wars. Asked if the UK will be responding to the US president’s decision, Reeves told Sky’s Wilfred Frost: “We’re not at the moment in a position where we want to do anything to escalate these trade wars. Trade wars are no good for anyone.”
An in-depth piece in the FT looks at how US companies are scrambling to negotiate price cuts from their Chinese suppliers - including retail giants Costco and Walmart - and shift production to other regions as they grapple with President Trump’s additional 20% tariffs on Chinese goods. Businesses are also gearing for more disruption after the president announced fees on all non-American made cars on Wednesday.
Major UK investors including Axa and Scottish Widows are backing a campaign by ShareAction asking retail giants Marks & Spencer, Next and JD Sports to increase pay for thousands of workers, The Guardian reports. The push comes amid evidence that almost a quarter of UK retail workers are not being paid a ‘real living wage’.
Also in The Guardian is a story about how surging cost of cocoa is leading UK shoppers to shell out more for smaller Easter eggs. A Which? report found the price of eggs made by the likes of Cadbury, Mars and Terry’s have risen by as much as 50%, while some have also shrunk in size.
Read the Grocer’s ongoing coverage of the rise in cocoa prices in our latest confectionery stories.
Finally, Ben & Jerry’s fudge has “come back to bite Unilever”, according to an op-ed in the FT, which looks at the odd and turbulent relationship between the ice-cream brand and its parent company. Ben & Jerry’s last week sued Unilever for allegedly firing its chief executive David Stever over his views on political issues, specifically Israel’s war in Gaza.
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