Helia Ebrahimi , Economics Correspondent

Exactly eight years ago, George Osborne unveiled an emergency budget that aimed to slash the then mammoth government deficit. Thus the policy of austerity was born, and it has shaped much of this country’s social and political life ever since. But with the Prime Minister announcing more cash for the NHS this week, many Conservatives…

The company behind PC World, Currys and Carphone Warehouse has apologised after revealing that hackers have stolen millions of credit card details from the company, though it says there’s no evidence so far of fraud. It’s the latest, and one of the largest, examples of big companies losing our data, and raises questions about whether…

Ashington in Northumberland was once a thriving mining town, but the thousands of jobs there have long gone – leaving a population struggling to find decent work and stay connected with the wider region and the country as a whole.

The UK economy has grown at its weakest level for six years, up by just point one percent in the first quarter of the year. Downing Street said it was “clearly disappointing”, but insisted the fundamentals of the economy remained strong, while some experts blamed the winter weather. But with construction falling sharply, as well…

They know us better than we know ourselves: that’s the impression you might get from the Facebook data harvesting scandal. And while the crisis has dented the social media giant’s reputation, it has vowed to clean up its act when it comes to users’ personal details. But some of the controls Facebook has brought in…

Wages are growing faster than prices for the first time in just over a year.  It marks the end of the squeeze on real incomes that has hobbled the economy, squeezed the consumer and brought misery to much of the high street.  So is the economy now in the clear?

We are not afraid of a trade war. That was the tough response from China to the lastest threat of tariffs issued last night by President Trump. He’s told his officials to identify tariffs on another $100bn of Chinese imports, on top of the $50bn of imports he’s already got in his sights.  

Thousands of firms up and down the country are routinely paying their female staff far less than men: unsurprising, perhaps – but the sheer extent of the gender pay gap is now starkly revealed ahead of tonight’s deadline for firms to declare their figures. From the results submitted so far – men across Britain are…

So what impact will this have on the simmering trade war? Beijing’s announcement of steep import duties on US products like pork, wine and fruit will affect goods worth more than three billion dollars- as China vowed it would protect its interests. Our economics correspondent Helia Ebrahimi reports.

The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn appears to have deleted his personal Facebook account as the row about anti-Semitism in the party escalated again. It’s just days since he was accused of belonging to several Facebook groups where some members had posted anti-Semitic content. Our correspondent Helia Ebrahimi is brings us the latest.

Not so much a gap – more of a chasm: the difference in gender pay across the public sector is worse than those revealed so far by private firms, according to new figures. Today is the final deadline for public bodies to reveal pay levels for men and women – and it reveals a startling…

The US media giant Comcast, which owns NBC and Universal Pictures, has launched a £22 billion bid for Sky, which could frustrate Rupert Murdoch’s efforts to take over the company. He’s already been the subject of concerns from the competition regulator about the amount of influence he would have over Britain’s media. Comcast says the only…

In the latest revelation in the debate over gender pay it has emerged that women working at Barclays are paid an average 48% less than their male counterparts. It is one of the most glaring pay gaps revealed so far as companies continue to submit the average pay of their male and female employees to…

The squeeze on the cost of living continues, as inflation sticks at 3 per cent for January, the same as it was in December.

US stock markets are continuing to fall, ending a week which has seen the biggest global sell-off of shares for six years. And there have been losses across Europe’s stock exchanges too, including London, where the FTSE index of leading shares closed half a per cent lower. So when will the volatility calm down?