Closing summary
Russia’s central bank has hiked interest rates by 3.5 percentage points in an emergency move aimed at halting the rouble’s recent slide, after it fell to its weakest point in almost 17 months.
The decision to raise the key rate from 8.5% to 12% was announced after an extraordinary meeting of the bank’s board of directors, called after the rouble plunged past the psychologically key level of 100 to the dollar on Monday morning.
The central bank said it had taken the decision to “limit risks to price stability” after several inflation indicators rose to over 7% in the past three months, a significant deviation from its target of 4%.
The Bank of England is under renewed pressure to raise interest rates next month after wages jumped more than expected in June, boosted by a one-off payment to NHS workers.
A rise in borrowing costs is likely even though the latest figures for the UK labour market also showed employers had begun to shed workers in response to a slowdown in economic activity.
Total pay, including bonuses, rose by 8.2% a year in the three months to June, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported, stronger than the 7.3% analysts expected.
Regular pay, which excludes bonus payments, rose by 7.8% in the quarter, the highest regular annual growth rate since comparable records began in 2001, up from 7.5% in March-May.
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Harvey Nichols boss quits
The boss of Harvey Nichols has quit the retailer she first joined 25 years ago after tensions over its strategy, and a member of its owning family will take the reins.
Manju Malhotra started at the Knightsbridge store in London in 1998 as a newly qualified accountant and worked her way up through the ranks before becoming chief executive in January 2020, just before the Covid pandemic forced stores to shut.
The exit of the down-to-earth Londoner, whose first experience of retail was helping out in her parents’ fashion store off Brick Lane in the East End, comes after a row over strategy with the group’s Hong Kong-based owner, Sir Dickson Poon.
It is understood Malhotra disagreed with the owners over the pace of change at the company. According to the Daily Telegraph, Malhotra wanted to make significant changes after several years of losses at the group, which has eight stores in the UK and Ireland, including large outlets in Edinburgh, Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester, as well as a specialist beauty shop in Liverpool and five overseas branches.
