Closing post
Time for a recap.
UK benchmark borrowing costs have hit a three-month high today, as City traders brace for a possible increase in borrowing in this month’s budget.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is also considering raising capital gains tax as high as 39%, in a scramble to raise funds for crumbling public services.
Analysts have calculated that tax rises worth £25bn woud be needed to avoid further austerity.
Inflation across the US has weakened to 2.4%, its slowest pace in more than three years.
UK surveyors have reported that national house prices are rising again, helped by hopes of lower interest rates.
Renters, though, are facing higher tenancy costs as some landlords sell up.
UK lenders have reported that the default rates on secured loans to households increased in the third quarter of this year, and are expected to increase again in the final quarter
Shares in pharmaceuticals group GSK have rallied after it agreed to settle US litigation over its heartburn treatment Zantac.
TSB bank has been fined £11m for mistreating customers.
Over at the UK’s Horizon inquiry, the chief executive of the Post Office has said previous leaders may not have been “held to account” for being aware of problems with the flawed IT system.
Speaking about the system which sparked the wrongful prosecutions of hundreds of postmasters, Nick Read said:
“I think one of the themes that has emerged amongst colleagues still working within the organisation is that many of the leaders historically who have appeared before this inquiry appear not to have been held to account, if in indeed they were aware of and understood other issues associated with Horizon in the past.”
Read also said he was “surprised” at the “scale” of interest from the police, after learning that 33 investigations into branches were being carried out in June this year.
“I think there was some surprise at the scale of requests in terms of the 22 law enforcement agencies and the 33 requests.
I think we were of the opinion that it was in the ones and twos in terms of requests for information... the primary discomfort was the size and the number of the requests that were coming forward.”
Yesterday, Read told the inquiry that no employee is “above the law”…
