Closing summary
Time to wrap up. Here’s the main stories
US house price growth is set to slow substantially, experts say, as the cost of living squeeze hits household budgets.
Mortgage lender Halifax reported that average prices hit a new record of £276,759 in January, but monthly growth slowed to 0.3%. Higher inflation, and rising borrowing costs, are likely to cool the market this year.
European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde has tried to calm concerns that inflation could force the ECB to tighten monetary policy sharply. She told MEPs that the chances have increased that inflation will stabilize at its 2% target, despite hitting its higher level since the euro came in.
Lagarde’s comments came after eurozone bond yields rose, with the gap between Italy and Germany’s borrowing costs hitting its highest since summer 2020.
Supermarket chain Asda has committed to making its cheapest food ranges more widely available, after the anti-poverty campaigner Jack Monroe raised concerns that low-income shoppers were facing price increases because they could no longer get hold of them.
Unions have urged the government to do more to help low-paid workers weather the cost of living crisis, after research found the number claiming universal credit has more than doubled since the start of the pandemic to at least 2.3 million.
The founder of Cobra Beer has warned that drinkers are going to have to pay more for their pints because the industry faces a “vicious cycle” of surging costs.
Two FTSE 350 firms have appointed new CEOs today, and they’re both women.
Pets At Home has appointed Sky UK executive Lyssa McGowan as its first female chief executive, while housebuilder Taylor Wimpey has promoted group operations director Jennie Daly to be its CEO, despite pressure from activist investor Elliott for an external hire.
The mutual insurer LV= has launched a boardroom clear-out following the high-profile failure of its management to sell the company to a US private equity firm last year.
European stock markets have closed higher, with travel stocks boosted by signs that Covid-19 case rates are falling in some countries.
Investor morale in the eurozone has risen....but German industrial production dipped in December as construction output dropped.
And fans of plant milk can now buy potato milk at Waitrose this week:
Goodnight. GW
Some highlights from the Treasury Committee’s hearing on inflation, and the Bank of England today, from my colleague Richard Partington...:
Roger Bootle tells the Treasury committee what, I suspect, the Conservative members probably didn't want to hear - On high UK debt-GDP and rising interest rates pushing up debt servicing costs: "It’s not quite the disaster that people imagine"
— Richard Partington (@RJPartington) February 7, 2022
Jim O'Neill says he'd welcome higher debt-GDP as a consequence of "proper" investment in education, health and devolution.
— Richard Partington (@RJPartington) February 7, 2022
"I would positively welcome it... What's different between 85% and 100% if it's being done for a constructive purpose?".
..and Arthi Nachiappan of The Times:
“It was important that the monetary policy committee signalled its willingness to act last year… some of the language could have been clearer” @jagjit_chadha @NIESRorg tells the Treasury Committee in the House of Commons hearing this afternoon
— Arthi Nachiappan (@ArthiNachiappan) February 7, 2022
@RogerBootle says there is a mismatch between the level of monetary policy tightening and the scale of the inflation danger but adds that it’s not just the Bank - the vast majority of economists were also not able to predict that inflation would rise as fast as it did
— Arthi Nachiappan (@ArthiNachiappan) February 7, 2022
Ann Pettifor says the Bank of England can’t be held responsible for the “disfunctional” global energy market - the problem is not with the Bank but with the broader economic model
— Arthi Nachiappan (@ArthiNachiappan) February 7, 2022
Lord O’Neill says the “persistent quantitative easing approach” had long gone beyond its purpose before Covid & the Bank has created a problem for themselves linked to how long QE has gone on for
— Arthi Nachiappan (@ArthiNachiappan) February 7, 2022
