Will Japan’s close ties with US survive the caprice and quirks of Donald Trump?

Japan’s complex defence alliances built up over years as protection against China could be put at risk in a Trump-launched trade war

Wall Street falls sharply as Fed indicates fewer rate cuts in 2025 to fight inflation

Central bank lowers benchmark federal funds rate by a quarter of a percentage point to between 4.25% to 4.5%

‘Gamechanger’: super fund billions touted as solution to housing crisis

Institutional investors traditionally shy away from social housing because returns are too low but Labor initiative may change that

UK inflation hits eight-month high of 2.6%, fuelling calls to hold interest rates

Annual increase in November driven by rising cost of petrol and groceries and hike in tobacco duty in budget

UK factory orders ‘collapse’ to four-year low, CBI says; inflation rises to 2.6% – as it happened

Starmer says more to do on economy so growth is ‘felt in the pockets of working people’; US Federal Reserve widely expected to cut interest rates by a quarter point

UK inflation data leaves Starmer miles off goal of growth ‘felt in people’s pockets’

Increase extinguishes expectations of interest rate cut this week and underlines tough challenges policymakers face

Labor’s long game: why trust and a little fear matter more than a balanced budget

With voters distracted by Christmas, the government has saved major announcements for 2025, using the mini-budget to prove it can get its sums right

Company insolvencies rise across England and Wales; interest rate cuts less likely after UK pay growth accelerates – as it happened

UK wage growth has risen to 5.2% per year, making Bank of England highly likely to leave interest rates on hold on Thursday

Britain’s bumper pay rises show inflation is tricky to shift

Labour market figures do not yet show effects of Rachel Reeves’s tax rises on employers in the budget

UK pay growth leaps to 5.2%, reducing chances of interest rate cut

Rise in wages for skilled workers in manufacturing sector drives increase, but vacancies fall again

UK firms slash jobs after budget, but US economy booms; Royal Mail takeover gets government clearance – business live

UK staffing levels fall and government clears EP Group’s takeover of Royal Mail

UK businesses cutting staff at fastest rate since 2021 after budget

Companies responding to national insurance rise by reducing hiring, survey finds

Economists and policy experts warn Reeves against City deregulation

Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz among 50 signatories of statement that points to risks to Labour’s wider aims

At last, a group of MPs intent on reforming our madly unfair council tax

The system relies on valuations from 1991, when Gorbachev was in power, but has become politically untouchable

This economist says the US needs price controls to tackle inflation: ‘We need to dare to think outside the box’

Isabella Weber says economists must design policies that people feel make their lives better – or the US could slide toward fascism