Neil Macdonald

Inflation has fallen unexpectedly, raising hopes that financial pressure on families and businesses may be easing.

Today, the Chinese authorities cut interest rates in a bid to boost growth, but financial markets were surprised they didn’t do more.

The Bank of England has raised interest rates 13 times in the last 18 months – but today the financial regulator said big banks have failed to pass on those higher rates to their savers.

As the government struggles to find short term funding for more public sector pay, the long term outlook for the public finances has become more vulnerable, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility.  

A million UK households are set to see their mortgage payments jump by a painful £500 a month over the next three years, according to the Bank of England. 

Two year fixed deals have risen to an average rate of 6.6 percent.

Pension incomes could be boosted by a thousand pounds a year, the government has claimed, under reforms which it is announcing this evening. The plan is to encourage the UK’s big pension funds to pump more money into smaller start up businesses – and the chancellor is setting out his ideas to the City this…

The UK energy secretary has accused fuel retailers of using motorists as “cash cows” after an investigation by the competition watchdog.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will meet Britain’s biggest mortgage lenders this Friday.

Fixed rates on two-year mortgages rose above six per cent today – while short term interest rates on government borrowing hit their highest level for more than a decade.

There is no alternative. That was the message today from the Chancellor, saying the government gave complete backing to the Bank of England in its bid to bring down inflation by raising interest rates.  

The cost of short-term government borrowing has risen above the levels hit in the aftermath of Liz Truss’s controversial mini-budget.

There may be some relief on the horizon for households trying to cover their ever-rising food bills. 

The CBI has accepted that it failed to filter out “culturally toxic people” during its hiring process.

There was a nasty surprise in today’s inflation figures – the rate went up when it was widely expected to fall.