Closing post
Time to wrap up…
Unemployment in the UK unexpectedly fell in the three months to February, according to official figures – but the fallout from the conflict in the Middle East is expected to cause a rise in job cuts.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the rate of unemployment was 4.9% in February, the lowest level since last summer. This compares with 5.2% in the three months to January, a rate that economists had expected to also see in February.
Excluding bonuses, wage growth fell to 3.6% year on year in the three months to February, down from 3.8% in January and the lowest level since November 2020. After taking account of inflation, wages grew by just 0.2%.
Primark is to break free from its sister food company, which owns Twinings, Kingsmill and Patak’s, next year despite warning that the conflict in the Middle East is likely to hit consumer spending and drive up inflation.
The fashion chain’s owner, Associated British Foods (ABF), confirmed the plan to split off Primark from the rest of the food group, first mooted last year. The fashion group operates 486 stores across 19 countries.
The demerger is expected to create two new FTSE 100 companies, with Primark worth as much as £9bn and the food business £4bn, although the valuations would be dependent on an improved profits outlook, according to Charles Allen, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
Second-class post will be delivered every other weekday and scrapped on Saturdays from next month as part of a £500m plan to tackle late deliveries at struggling Royal Mail.
The courier has been piloting a new letter delivery pattern since July, which will be rolled out nationwide in May.
The change comes follows a deal with the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Unite last week that ended a lengthy dispute over the second-class post overhaul. The CWU will now ballot its members on the changes.
There will be no changes to first-class post, which will still be delivered daily from Monday to Saturday, or to parcels, which remain unchanged, continuing at up to seven days a week.
The US stock market has opened tentatively higher this afternoon – the blue chip S&P 500 index is up 0.1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 0.6%.
