David Milliken

British businesses do not expect any growth over the next three months, as a surging cost of living squeezes consumer demand, a monthly survey showed on Sunday.

Around 5,000 train drivers across almost a quarter of Britain's rail network went on strike on Saturday, as part of a campaign for higher pay after the country's inflation rate hit its highest in 40 years.

British employers agreed average pay rises of 4% with their staff in the three months to the end of June, the joint-highest since 1992 but falling further behind inflation, industry data showed on Wednesday.

Britain's government must focus on sound public finances and avoid further fuelling inflation by pumping up demand, new finance minister Nadhim Zahawi is due to say in his first major speech on Tuesday.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will offer millions of public sector workers pay rises averaging 5% next week, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing unnamed government ministers.

British house prices rose at their slowest pace in more than a year last month as buyer demand softened slightly although the overall breadth of price increases remained well above pre-pandemic levels, a survey showed on Thursday.

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said on Monday that he still thought that inflation was likely to fall sharply next year, broadly in line with forecasts the British central bank presented in early May.

Bank of England regulators are concerned about an increase in the number of failed transactions in the British government bond repo market, which they said "reflected very poorly" on the City of London's reputation.

Central banks should move quickly when raising interest rates, because of the risk that persistent inflationary trends may be taking hold, Bank of England policymaker Catherine Mann said on Thursday.

Britain faces an unsustainable debt burden more than three times its current level unless future governments raise taxes to fund increasing costs from an ageing population and falling revenue from taxation on motor fuel, a watchdog warned on Thursday.

Activity in Britain's construction sector slowed sharply last month, with the weakest expansion since September 2021, as fears for the economic outlook caused house-building to contract for the first time since early in the COVID-19 pandemic.

British manufacturing firm Corbetts the Galvanizers used to rely on a stream of workers from Poland and Romania to fill its shop floor, where steel is dipped into a long vat of molten zinc at temperatures of around 450?C (842?F).

Britain is becoming a more closed economy due to Brexit, with damaging long-term implications for productivity and wages which will leave the average worker 470 pounds ($577) a year poorer by the end of the decade, a study forecast on Wednesday.

Britain's economy faces stagnation next year and could easily fall into recession, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) warned on Monday after it slashed its outlook for growth due to surging inflation.

Construction of new homes in Britain almost ground to a halt last month as builders feared the cost-of-living squeeze and rising interest rates would constrain demand, a closely watched survey showed on Wednesday.

Britain's economy regained its pre-COVID size late last year, but in one crucial way it has not recovered: there are 400,000 fewer workers than at the start of the pandemic.

Former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said on Friday that central banks including the BoE are to blame for the current surge in inflation to its highest in 40 years, after doing too much quantitative easing during the pandemic.

The Bank of England will need to raise interest rates further to combat the risk of self-perpetuating price rises, the central bank's chief economist, Huw Pill, said on Friday.

The Bank of England will probably need to raise interest rates much more sharply than financial markets expect to get soaring inflation under control, former policymakers said on Wednesday.

Britain is on course to enter a technical recession in the second half of this year and faces a big hit to living standards from surging prices, an economic think-tank said on Wednesday.

British factory activity edged up in April after slowing to its weakest in just over a year in March following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but manufacturers were wary about the outlook as costs leapt and demand faltered, a survey showed on Tuesday.

The Bank of England looks set to take its first steps next week towards selling some of the 875 billion pounds ($1.11 trillion) of government bonds it amassed between 2009 and 2021, leading markets into uncharted territory.

Britain's economy slowed more sharply than expected in February, reflecting a hit to car production from component shortages, storm disruption and reduced health spending as households braced for a tighter cost-of-living squeeze.

Growth in Britain's economy slowed more sharply than expected in February as gross domestic product rose by 0.1%, official figures showed on Monday, down from 0.8% growth in January.

More than one in five bankers earning at least 125,000 pounds ($164,000) a year in Britain have benefited from non-domiciled tax status, as have many high-paid workers in other sectors, a study showed on Thursday.

Investors scaled back their expectations for future Bank of England interest rate rises this year, sending British bond prices sharply higher, after the BoE hiked again on Thursday but softened its language about further tightening.

Britain's lowest-paid workers have seen the biggest squeeze on their pay over the past 12 months, according to figures on Tuesday which suggest the cost of living crisis is likely to prove even more painful than headline figures imply.

Britain's unemployment rate dropped below its pre-pandemic rate in the three months to January while pay rose faster than expected, according to official figures that are likely to bolster the Bank of England's plans to raise interest rates.

Pet collars and casual clothing are replacing takeaway doughnuts and men's two-piece suits this year as Britain's statisticians update their inflation calculations to account for pandemic trends.