A senior figure in Donald Trump’s Cabinet is plotting a £700m deal that would see one of Britain’s biggest digital-only banks being listed on the US stock market. Sky News has learnt that a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) set up by Wilbur Ross, who was President Trump’s commerce secretary between 2017 and 2021, is
Business
Hundreds of staple grocery items had shot up in price by more than a fifth over the two years prior to the surge in food inflation caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to an investigation. As households get to grips with a growing cost of living crisis, the consumer group Which? said that shoppers
Britons must brace themselves for a “very unpleasant period”, with “considerable” interest rate hikes now needed to prevent a re-run of the 1970s, former Bank of England governor Mervyn King has warned. Lord King launched a coruscating attack on central banks including the Bank of England itself, saying they shared responsibility for the cost of
British consumer confidence has plunged to its lowest level since records began nearly 50 years ago, a survey has suggested, adding to fears that the economy will soon be hit by a slowdown in consumer spending. Market research firm GfK said its consumer confidence gauge sunk to a score of -40 in May, down from
Royal Mail has said it will need to rise prices and cut costs in the face of soaring inflation. The company warned that it sees “significant headwinds” from rising costs including wages, energy and fuel. Royal Mail revealed that it aimed to make cost savings of £350m over the course of its current financial year
Britain’s biggest dairy producer has admitted the price of milk will continue to increase due to sky high energy costs that have already risen by 200%. Arla Foods’ chief commercial officer Peter Giortz-Carlson told Sky News that input costs, driven higher by the war in Ukraine, will have to be passed on to customers. His
There is no getting away from the shock of the headline figure here. The consumer price index is the main measure we use to track how fast the prices of the goods and services we tend to buy are rising. It’s far from a perfect measure: it takes a typical “shopping basket” of items based
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has written to the leading petrol retailers “to remind them of their responsibilities” to pass on tax cuts to motorists. The letter, sent to fuel giants on Tuesday, follows claims some retailers hiked profits following the 5p per litre fuel duty cut implemented by Chancellor Rishi Sunak in March to help
Real wages have dropped by 1.2% as regular pay growth fails to keep up with soaring inflation, according to the latest official figures. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported that the fall in regular pay, which excludes bonus payments, intensified when the effects of inflation were included in the three months to March compared
The £4.25bn takeover of Chelsea Football Club has been thrown into fresh doubt amid a renewed impasse between owner Roman Abramovich and Whitehall over the deal’s terms. Sky News understands that government officials have doubts about whether a special licence needed to approve the sale will be issued before a deadline at the end of
The energy price cap, the mechanism that determines gas and electricity bills for 22 million households, could soon be reviewed every three months under plans announced by the industry regulator. Ofgem revealed that it was putting the idea out to consultation amid criticism that the current twice-yearly adjustment arrangement – in April and October –
Oil giant Saudi Aramco has revealed its profits skyrocketed by more than 80% in the first three months of the year, with prices buoyed by post-pandemic global demand and the Ukraine war. The bumper first-quarter earnings by the state-owned firm, which overtook Apple as the world’s most valuable company last week, showed a record net
The Premier League is considering a formal ban on debt-fuelled club takeovers as part of a far-reaching overhaul of its ownership rules. Sky News has learnt that the 20 top-flight clubs are being canvassed by Premier League executives for their views on the merits of a block on so-called leveraged buyouts. The consultation process, which
Bitcoin has recovered slightly, but is still set for a record losing streak after the collapse of a so-called stablecoin. Crypto-assets have taken a pounding after a digital token called Terra – supposed to be pegged to the US dollar – crashed in value. The impact has rippled through markets with Bitcoin, the biggest cryptocurrency
What is Elon Musk up to? Not for the first time that’s the question on the minds of Twitter executives, global investors and many of his 92 million followers, after the world’s richest man announced, in a tweet, naturally, that his purchase of the social media platform is “temporarily on hold”. The impact was instant,
Billionaire Elon Musk has said his Twitter deal is “temporarily on hold” over the company’s spam and fake user accounts. Mr Musk, who last week secured $7bn from new investors for his $44bn takeover, tweeted: “Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users.”
Be in no doubt, today’s GDP figures are bad news indeed. Bad news as they show the economy is shrinking sooner than expected, down 0.1% in March. But bad news too, in terms of what it heralds for the rest of the year. All the signs and predictions were already that the worst is set
The UK economy contracted by 0.1% in March, as surging inflation took a toll on demand to offset the boost that had been expected from the end of COVID restrictions. The monthly figure compares to no growth in February and 0.7% growth in January, while the quarterly figure (between January and March) showed a growth
Chelsea FC is close to unveiling a £20m-a-year sponsorship deal with a fast-growing cryptocurrency group – despite a temporary ban on the club striking lucrative new partnerships while it operates under government supervision. Sky News can reveal that the Blues have agreed a shirt-sleeve contract with WhaleFin, a digital asset platform owned by Singapore-based Amber
Billionaire Elon Musk, who is set to buy Twitter, has said he would reverse the platform’s “foolish” ban on former US president Donald Trump if his acquisition goes through. The tech tycoon said: “Permanent bans should be extremely rare and really reserved for accounts that are bots or spam, scam accounts. I do think it