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UK voters will enjoy higher wages but continue to struggle with mortgages and rent ahead of the next election as the cost of living crisis gives way to an uneven “grey gloom”, according to a Financial Times economists survey. A majority of the 90 respondents to the FT’s annual poll of leading UK-based economists said

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. More than a billion dollars worth of Pfizer’s Covid-19 antiviral drugs procured in Europe have been wasted, according to health data, as tight controls over who can receive the medication left millions of doses unused

Record inflows into US money market funds in 2023 have triggered a multibillion-dollar fee bonanza for the asset management industry, which for years treated the product as a loss-leader. US money market fund providers – such as Fidelity, Vanguard and Charles Schwab – collectively earned $7.6bn in fees in 2023 as assets passed $6.3tn, according

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Equities myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Global stock markets are set to record their strongest year since 2019 following a blistering two-month rally as investors bet that major central banks have finished raising interest rates and will cut them rapidly next year.

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The US has slapped sanctions on groups in Turkey and Yemen allegedly responsible for funnelling money to Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in a crackdown driven by their attacks on commercial vessels passing through the Red Sea.

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Aerospace & Defence myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. The order books of the world’s biggest defence companies are near record highs after growing by more than 10 per cent in just two years because of rising geopolitical tension, including the conflict in

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the War in Ukraine myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. The EU is preparing a back-up plan worth up to €20bn for Ukraine, using a debt structure that sidesteps the objections of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán about funding the war-torn country. After EU leaders failed

The influence of China’s once-powerful central bank has diminished as Beijing steps up a drive to centralise Communist party control over financial regulation. Some of the powers formerly held by the People’s Bank of China have been taken over by a party oversight body and a revamped financial regulator as Beijing resets its growth model.

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to fight on in the war against Hamas, despite a mounting death toll and growing international calls to alleviate the humanitarian suffering in the Palestinian enclave and halt

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Blackstone invested more in European real estate than in any other region in 2023, as the world’s largest commercial property owner picked up bargains from market turmoil and distressed sellers.  Real estate deal-making collapsed this

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the US inflation myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. The measure of inflation preferred by US rate setters fell by more than expected in November, bolstering investor expectations of rate cuts next year. The core personal consumption expenditures price index showed prices rose by

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Jeremy Hunt has raised the prospect of the Bank of England reducing interest rates in 2024, saying a cut would be a crucial moment in shifting the economic mood in what is expected to be

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Oil & Gas industry myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. The UK and US are tightening rules around the shipping of Russian oil in an attempt to make it harder for Moscow to circumvent the so-called price cap, a policy aimed at squeezing

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Colorado’s supreme court has barred Donald Trump from being included as a candidate in the state’s Republican presidential primary ballot due to his involvement in efforts to overturn the results of the presidential election that

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The Pentagon has convinced more than a half dozen allies to join a strengthened naval task force in the Red Sea amid mounting attacks by Iran-backed rebels on commercial shipping that have driven oil prices

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the War in Ukraine myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. The head of the IMF has urged Ukraine’s allies to rapidly unlock tens of billions of dollars for the country, as she warned delays in providing the extra funding would jeopardise Kyiv’s tentative economic

This article is an onsite version of our Europe Express newsletter. Sign up here to get the newsletter sent straight to your inbox every weekday and Saturday morning A “remarkable strategic own goal by us” — that’s how Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, this week described the risk of a lapse in

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy began this week hopeful that his two biggest allies in the face of Russia’s invasion would finally approve financial aid packages worth a total of $115bn. He ended it with little to show for it. Fraying support for Kyiv in Washington and Brussels coincided with Russian President Vladimir Putin vowing to attack

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the War in Ukraine myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. EU leaders agreed to open accession talks with Ukraine at a charged summit on Thursday, after Hungary’s prime minister relented in his opposition to the historic step for the war-torn country. The decision marks

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. BP said it had dismissed Bernard Looney, its former chief executive, who would forfeit as much as £32.4mn in pay after committing “serious misconduct” related to failing to disclose past relationships with colleagues. Looney stepped

Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Accounting & Consulting services myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. KPMG has underscored its position as laggard of the Big Four after it posted the slowest growth in global sales among the accountancy and consulting firms during the latest financial year. The smallest