Closing summary: Rachel Reeves asks for Treasury assessment of UK economy
Rachel Reeves is to provide an emergency assessment of the government’s spending inheritance before MPs leave for their summer break as she attempts to pin the blame for looming tough decisions on the defeated Tories.
The new chancellor used her first speech since arriving at the Treasury to insist there would be no deviation from Labour’s hardline stance on reducing the national debt despite being bequeathed the “worst set of circumstances since the second world war”.
Reeves said one of her first decisions in post had been to ask officials to provide an assessment of the UK’s public spending position so that she could better understand the scale of the challenge ahead.
You can read the report from the Guardian’s Larry Elliott here:
Will the new Labour government receive an economic tailwind from the Bank of England? If Jonathan Haskel had his way, monetary support for the economy would come later rather than sooner.
Haskel, an outgoing member of the monetary policy committee, said that he would rather hold rates for longer – rather than cutting them – to ensure that inflationary pressures have properly dissipated.
In other news from the world of business and economics:
France’s benchmark Cac 40 index and the euro dropped in early trading before swinging into the black on Monday after French elections, as investors weighed up the prospects for a political stalemate that would make radical fiscal changes unlikely.
Shares in pub company Marston’s surged after it agreed for Carlsberg to buy out its part of a brewing joint venture for £206m. Carlsberg has been busy, also agreeing a £3.3bn deal to buy Robinson’s drink maker Britvic.
Boeing will plead guilty to a criminal fraud charge stemming from two deadly crashes of 737 Max jetliners.
Paramount Global, one of Hollywood’s best-known companies, has agreed to a merger with the independent film studio Skydance, in a deal that ends its links with the Redstone family.
You can continue to follow our live coverage from around the world:
In the UK, Rachel Reeves says the new government has inherited ‘worst set of circumstances since second world war’
In our coverage of the French election, Emmanuel Macron asks Gabriel Attal to stay on as PM for time being amid political deadlock
In our coverage of the Gaza conflict, an Israeli minister says a hostage deal with Hamas would be ‘humiliation’ as Netanyahu is offered ‘political safety net’ by opposition
In our coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war, Italy accuses Russia of war crime over strike on children’s hospital as Zelenskiy vows to retaliate over missile attack on Kyiv
In the US, Joe Biden warns Democrats’ talk of replacing him helps Donald Trump
In our coverage of Hurricane Beryl, a man dies and more than 1.3m people without power as storm hits Texas
And in fact the S&P 500 benchmark and the tech-focused Nasdaq index have edged up to new record highs.
US stock markets have been buoyed by a huge surge in interest in artificial intelligence from investors, even if many of the costly efforts to build and rapidly improve generative models have so far not proven profitable.
