Closing summary
Time to recap:
British retail sales bounced back in May after a slump in April, as slowing inflation helped consumers to spend more.
NatWest has apologised to customers after its online and mobile banking services suffered outages on Tuesday morning.
Shares in UK water companies have fallen after the Guardian reported that regulator Ofwat is poised to refuse some of the industry’s requests to lift consumer bills sharply.
Artificial intelligence pioneer OpenAI is forming a new safety team to make recommendations on “critical safety and security decisions for OpenAI projects and operations”.
Fast fashion company Boohoo has abandoned a plan to hand large bonuses to executives who missed financial targets, after a backlash from investors.
Updated
Dutch central bank chief Klaas Knot has added his voice to the chorus of policymakers saying the European Central Bank can start to lower interest rates.
In a speech in London today, Knot indicated that the ECB could lower rates once a quarter – in tandem with its quarterly economic forecasts.
He explained:
“Policy rates will slowly but gradually move to less restrictive levels. Projection round meetings of the Governing Council will be the key meetings for our interest rate decisions.”
The ECB should have new forecasts to consider before its June meeting – one reason a rate cut next week is widely expected They’re also due in September, December and March.
Knot added
“Based on the March projections, optimal policy would have been broadly in line with 3-4 rate cuts.
The important takeaway is that, although these interest rate scenarios can provide useful guidance, given the current environment we still have to avoid any commitments on a specific future rate path.”
