News

The average cost of five-year fixed-rate UK mortgages has hit 6 per cent for the first time since November, as banks are called to respond to concern that savings rates are lagging behind rises in borrowing costs. The residential mortgage rate reached 6.01 per cent on Tuesday, according to data provider Moneyfacts, as the Bank

Currency speculators have boosted bullish wagers on the pound to the highest level for nine years despite recent signs that sterling’s strong rally this year is flagging. The growing consensus among speculative investors, such as hedge funds, comes after sterling has already rallied strongly this year, driven by the Bank of England’s effort to lift

The world’s largest active bond fund manager says markets are too optimistic about central banks’ ability to dodge a recession as they battle inflation in the US and Europe. Daniel Ivascyn, chief investment officer at Pimco, which manages $1.8tn of assets, said he was preparing for a “harder landing” than other investors while top central

One of the largest investors in Thames Water has given its support for the utility as other industry figures sought to stave off any possible nationalisation of the sector. The £90bn Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), which has a near 20 per cent stake in Thames Water, said on Friday: “We have given our backing to

Investment bankers’ advisory fees have plunged to the lowest level in almost a decade as the industry suffers from a wave of job cuts because of a prolonged slowdown in deal activity. Fees for completed mergers and acquisitions globally plummeted 35 per cent in the first half of the year to $12.8bn compared with 2022,

Top Russian army general Sergei Surovikin has been detained as the Kremlin cracks down on Wagner sympathisers following the militia’s failed mutiny last week. Surovikin, a senior Russian general known to have a good relationship with Wagner’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, has not been heard from for several days and has been detained, according to three

Ukraine has hit back at doubters over the progress of its summer counteroffensive, insisting recent modest gains against Russian occupiers were merely a “preview” of a much bigger push to come. Oleksiy Reznikov, Ukraine’s defence minister, told the Financial Times that the liberation of a group of villages under Russian occupation in recent weeks was

Russia dropped charges against participants in the Wagner paramilitary force’s armed insurrection and said the group had agreed to hand over its weaponry. The announcements on Tuesday came in the wake of the deal between the Kremlin and Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin and appeared to mark progress towards resolving the stand-off. The FSB, Russia’s main

Russia has shown images of defence minister Sergei Shoigu visiting troops, the first time he has been pictured in public since warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin’s weekend insurrection against senior military leadership. The brief video, posted on Monday by the defence ministry, showed Shoigu inspecting a Russian command point and listening to a report from subordinates about

Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin has said his Wagner mercenaries had abandoned their insurrection against the country’s armed forces just hours before a potential assault on Moscow, signalling a possible end to the first coup attempt in Russia for three decades. In a deal brokered by Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko, Prigozhin said his convoy of troops,

Vladimir Putin has admitted the situation in Rostov-on-Don is “complicated” after Yevgeny Prigozhin’s forces seized command points in the southern city and called on the Wagner mercenary group’s rank-and-file to lay down their arms. “Those who organised and prepared the military uprising, who took arms against their comrades, have betrayed Russia. And will pay for it.

Global central banks are entering a new phase in their battle with inflation as economists warn that recessions will be the price of achieving shared 2 per cent goals. Headline rates of inflation across most of the world’s economies have fallen back sharply since the autumn but core rates — which exclude volatile categories such

The Bank of England is expected to raise interest rates by a quarter point to 4.75 per cent on Thursday, with increasing calls for tougher action to fight persistent high inflation. Headline inflation stuck at 8.7 per cent in May, according to worse than expected data on Wednesday, with core inflation — which excludes volatile

UK inflation remained stuck at 8.7 per cent in May, higher than expectations of a drop to 8.4 per cent, marking the fourth month in a row that price rises have exceeded forecasts. With the cost of a broad range of goods and services rising sharply, the figures will reinforce expectations of multiple interest rate

UK grocery price inflation eased for a third consecutive month in June, with new data suggesting it might have peaked, according to research company Kantar. The annual pace of supermarket price increases eased to 16.5 per cent for the four weeks to June 11, down from 17.2 per cent the previous month. The figure was

The cost of a two-year fixed-rate mortgage in the UK rose above 6 per cent on Monday and two-year gilt yields rose to their highest level for 15 years, piling more pressure on homeowners and Rishi Sunak’s government. Mortgage costs have been rising sharply over the past week, ahead of an expected increase in interest

Beijing’s bid to persuade investors to value its giant state-owned enterprises according to their socialist credentials, rather than by conventional western capitalist measures, has flopped after a rally in their shares fizzled this month. The stocks rose after officials in November called for the creation of a “valuation system with Chinese characteristics” that departed from

UK households that come to the end of fixed-rate mortgage deals next year face an average £2,900 increase in annual payments, putting Rishi Sunak under pressure to defuse an election-year time bomb. The estimated increase in payments by the Resolution Foundation think-tank reflects concern that the UK has a worse inflation problem than other countries

Job cuts at the largest US banks this year are on course to surpass 11,000 as Wall Street contends with the worst recruitment market since the financial crisis following a pandemic-era hiring binge. Citigroup this week became the latest big US bank to announce significant job cuts, telling investors that it planned to complete 5,000

Boris Johnson, Britain’s former prime minister, has been condemned for lying to parliament over the Covid “partygate” scandal, in a damning report that casts doubt on whether he can ever stage a political comeback. The report by a cross-party committee of MPs published on Thursday is a searing indictment of Johnson’s conduct in high office,