in a speech by king charles at the state opening of parliament. as well as pledges on economic growth, transport, energy and housebuilding the government says it s seeking to rebuild relations with the european union after years of tensions since the uk voted to leave the bloc in 2016. my my government will seek to reset the relationship with european partners and work to improve the united kingdom s trade and investment relationship with the european union. my ministers will seek any security pact to strengthen cooperation on the mutual threats faced by the united kingdom and the european union. well, prime minister sir keir starmer will have an opportunity to start that process as he hosts dozens of european leaders at blenheim palace in oxfordshire, the ancestral home and birthplace of winston churchill. on wednesday he met with irish taoiseach simon harris for talks ahead of the meeting of the european political community a group which brings together the leaders of t
we heard from the new chancellor, rachel reeves, that economic growth is one of the government s top priorities, and any indication today that the economy is turning a corner will be crucial momentum for the new government plans to, as they put it, rebuild britain . let s discuss this with hetal mehta, head of economic research at st james s place. do you think we will see growth today? will that be the number four, something upwards? that is the expectation, four, something upwards? twat is the expectation, what most market participants are expecting and i think even the poor weather in the previous month, it seems quite likely thatis month, it seems quite likely that is what we will see, 0.2% increase would probably in line with what is expected, but what we can look forward to having that better pace of growth and a lot of people have written off the first quarter as a bit off the first quarter as a bit of a blip, but we need to see the fundamentals of the uk growth sta
china plunged into deflation for four months with the sharpest contraction in consumer prices in m years injanuary. meanwhile, falling producer prices continue to be a problem. in june, they fell 0.8% in line with forecasts, but easing from the previous month s1.4% drop. an ongoing crisis in the real estate sector, which has long accounted for a quarter of the country s gdp, has dragged down growth. for more on this, i m joined by kelvin wong, senior market analyst, oanda. good to see you. what do these numbers tell you about the state of the chinese economy? if you look at the trend, it seems to us that it has started to improve significantly since the start of this year, and if it continues with this movement, it will actually filter down to a positive feedback to the consumer inflationary trend. nevertheless, in order for the much more sustainable recovery, we also need to see movement in business and consumer sentiment as well, which is not showing up as well, which is no
let s start here in the uk, where the pressure is mounting on the government to intervene after many leading firms across a number of industries have complained about supply chain disruption. the boss of the supermarket chain iceland has said the disruption could affect christmas supplies, and wants the government to address the lack of hgv drivers. according to the british retail consortium, the uk is currently facing a shortfall of 90 thousand hgv drivers. logistic uk says brexit and covid 19 have exacerbated the situation. they estimate 25,000 eu drivers returned home during the pandemic and following the end of the brexit transition period. some firms have taken action, last month tesco began offering lorry drivers a £1,000 joining bonus due to the shortage. coral rose is chairman of the federation of wholesale distributors. good morning. from your perspective, talk about how big a deal this is, where are we at in this crisis? in this crisis? good morning, this is impac
goes for a spin! events in afghanistan are unfolding at a rapid pace. as the taliban captured a ninth key city, the afghan president fired his army chief. the government is still in control of the most important urban centres, but their hold in many areas is fragile. us officials say the taliban could reach the capital kabul in weeks. from there, our correspondent yogita limaye reports. desperation on a scale not seen in decades. thousands have arrived in kabul in the past few days. people who had homes and jobs, who led dignified lives, forced to leave everything behind. angry that they have been left on their own no government, no humanitarian agencies. this woman s sons are in the army. she says only the poor go to the battlefield, while politicians watch. we have seen this camp grow by the hour. people have been coming in from different parts of the country, as more and more provincial capitals, more and more cities are being taken over by the taliban. many of those we