(Bloomberg) -- UK inflation fell more sharply than expected to the lowest level in 2 1/2 years, bolstering investor expectations that the Bank of England...
-- UK inflation fell more sharply than expected to the lowest level in 2 1/2 years, bolstering investor expectations that the Bank of England will be able to reduce borrowing costs in the coming months.Nvidia Looks to Extend AI Dominance With New Blackwell Chips
“Inflation is heading in the right direction and should fall below the Bank of England’s 2% target sometime in the Spring,” said Alpesh Paleja, lead economist at the CBI. “However, the path beyond this is likely to be bumpy. Shifting base effects mean that it will likely rise back above 2% later in the year.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is hoping the bank can begin cutting interest rates soon enough for voter to feel the relief before his Conservatives face Keir Starmer’s resurgent Labour Party in an election expected in the “second half” of the year. In his remarks after the inflation data release, Hunt repeated his suggestion from a day earlier that the election could be held in October, but said such a decision would be “up to the prime minister.
BOE officials are waiting for March and April data to ensure inflation is settling back to the 2% target and in the second quarter may dip below US levels for the first time in almost two years. Those figures will include a sharp dip in energy prices when a cap on consumer bills resets and also an annual round of pay settlements. A number of consumer services including mobile phone plans also update in those months.
“The outlook for consumers is brightening,” said Zara Nokes, global market analyst at JPMorgan Asset Management. “While the Bank of England will also cheer the decline in the headline figure, it is unlikely to be convinced that the battle against inflation is won.” TORONTO — A new report suggests credit delinquencies among Canadian businesses are on the rise. Equifax Canada's latest quarterly business credit trends report says there was a 14.3 per cent uptick in the number of businesses that missed a payment on a credit product between the fourth quarter of 2023 and the fourth quarter of 2022. The report found a significant surge in instalment loan delinquencies, with early-stage delinquencies up by 12.5 per cent and late-stage delinquencies up by 16.
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