The Bank of England lived up to its promise to act “forcefully” to curb surging inflation, by announcing the biggest increase in interest rates for more than a quarter of a century (The Financial Times £).
Britain faces a protracted recession and the worst squeeze in living standards in more than 60 years after the Bank of England raised interest rates sharply and forecast inflation would hit 13% by the end of the year (The Financial Times £).
In a drastic set of forecasts for the economy, the Bank said households would suffer a record two years of falling incomes as the global gas crisis pushed up energy bills (The Times £).
Interest rate rises are needed now to avoid even bigger rate rises in future, the governor of the Bank of England has said, as the central bank faced criticism for adding to the cost of living crisis by pushing up the cost of mortgage repayments (The Times £).
A thunderous business editorial in The Times (£) calls the Bank of England a “joke”. “Luckily, the Brits are renowned for their sense of humour. So at least we can have some fun debating which of these is the biggest joke: the government, Ofgem or the Bank of England.”
A business editorial in The Guardian warns the Bank of England’s independence is under threat as the government needs to find a scapegoat for the misery to come.
Liz Truss’s supporters have stepped up their attack on the Bank of England’s handling of inflation, as the foreign secretary blamed the BoE and the Treasury for failing to avert the economic crisis facing Britain (The Financial Times £).
Liz Truss claimed on Thursday that she can avert a recession if she becomes prime minister, on the day the Bank of England warned that Britain was facing a protracted downturn (The Financial Times £).
The chief executive of Diageo received $10.5m in what could be his penultimate year as boss of the giant drinks company (The Times £).
Hundreds of Amazon employees have stopped work at the online retailer’s warehouse in Tilbury in Essex in response to a pay rise of only 35p – about 3% – compared with inflation that is now forecast to hit 13% later this year (The Guardian).
Next has pushed up its full-year profit forecast after warm weather boosted first-half sales at the UK fashion retailer and high street bellwether (The Financial Times £).
A “renaissance” in the popularity of its shops has prompted Next to forecast that its profits this year will be about £10m more than it had suggested previously (The Times £).
The clothing and homeware retailer said full-price sales rose by a better than anticipated 5% in the three months to 30 July, but warned it was expecting a slowdown in growth to just 1% in the second half of the year as the cost of living crisis hit shoppers’ budgets (The Guardian).
Fashion retailer Next has also benefited from a resurgence in demand for formal clothing (The Mail).
Alibaba’s quarterly revenue has fallen for the first time since its 2014 New York listing after the ecommerce group co-founded by Jack Ma suffered from China’s brutal Covid-19 lockdowns (The Financial Times £).
The slowdown adds to challenges facing the Chinese ecommerce group, which had achieved double-digit revenue growth almost every quarter since it went public in 2014 (The Times £).
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