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...While London was the worst performer, registering a 4.8 per cent annual contraction, Scotland was the best, recording a rise of 5.6 per cent....
...Food inflation slowed to 4 per cent in March from 5 per cent in February, well below the 45-year peak of 19.2 per cent in March 2023....
...Revenues from equities trading, which analysts had expected to decline, were instead up 4 per cent at $2.8bn, though revenues from fixed income trading fell 4 per cent....
...The drop in wage growth expectations will support the view that the central bank will start reducing rates from a 16-year high of 5.25 per cent in the summer....
...The fund group forecast that gilts would deliver an average annual return of 3.7 per cent over the next decade, compared with 4.4 per cent for Italian government bonds and 2.2 per cent for German Bunds....
...Interest rate sensitive 2-year gilt yields dropped from 4.14 per cent ahead of the announcement to 4.12 per cent, down 0.11 percentage points on the day....
...The IMF suggested that inflation is on track to continue falling in the UK, forecasting inflation will drop from 7.3 per cent last year to 2.5 per cent in 2024 and 2 per cent next year — the BoE’s target...
...Two-year gilt yields, which reflect interest rate expectations, were down 0.01 percentage points at 4.25 per cent. Sterling also nudged lower, falling 0.2 per cent against the dollar at $1.2696....
...Other Chinese companies that saw sharp rises included hotpot chain Haidilao, which rose 16.4 per cent, and private property developer Longfor, which added 13.9 per cent....
...Pantherella cotton ribbed socks, £16. Bijouterie Lignon earrings, model’s own Louis Vuitton cotton short trench coat, £2,240, cotton sleeveless jacket, £1,745, and cotton sleeveless dress, £970....
...The unemployment rate averaged 4.2 per cent in the three months to February, up 0.3 percentage points from the previous three-month period....
...The latest gains followed a 16.4 per cent share price jump on Thursday, after the chipmaker’s quarterly results and new forecasts blew past analyst expectations....
...In 2023 the company, which operates in 32 countries and also owns Carolina Herrera and Nina Ricci, reported record net revenues of €4.3bn and net profit of €465mn, up 16 per cent from the previous year....
...In Europe, 10-year German bond yields fell slightly to 2.906 per cent, close to last week’s 12-year high of 2.98 per cent....
...The benchmark FTSE 100 index rose 1.4 per cent after the news, putting it on track to close at a record high....
...Headline inflation stood at 4 per cent in January, unchanged from December but well below a 42-year high of 11.1 per cent in October 2022....
...Economists polled by Reuters had expected a month-on-month rise of 0.3 per cent in March, and an annual increase of 2.4 per cent....
...The gap this opens up leads directly to a third of learners receiving a grade 4 standard pass or below at GCSE, and to the consequential requirements for resits and remedial work at 16-19....
...The benchmark index rose 2.1 per cent in a broad rally led by tech stocks. Nvidia was the best performer, gaining 16.4 per cent to reach its own record high....
...Retail adjusted operating profit rose 10.9 per cent to £2.76bn, and guidance is for this to be at least £2.8bn in this financial year....
...Markets are pricing the BoE to start cutting interest rates from a 16-year high of 5.25 per cent from the summer, taking the benchmark rate to 4.5 per cent by the end of the year....
...Although inflation was still double the BoE’s target, analysts had expected an uptick to 4.2 per cent, slightly above the central bank’s estimate of 4.1 per cent....
...The annual change in consumer food prices across 38 industrialised countries eased to 5.3 per cent in February, down from 6.2 per cent in the previous month and well below a peak of 16.2 per cent in November...
...NHS England said: “The official published statistics on NHS waiting lists actually show 6.3mn patients were on NHS waiting lists as of the end of January and only 4.2 per cent of waits were over a year....
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