Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt have postponed next week’s planned Autumn Statement 

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt have postponed next week’s planned Autumn Statement – which will include an Office for Budgetary Responsibility's forecast - to 17th November. The Treasury said the statement would contain the UK's medium-term fiscal plan to put public spending on "a sustainable footing", get debt falling and "restore stability". Sunak said the delay will give him time to make the "right decisions" on managing the economic crisis. In a statement following yesterday morning's Cabinet meeting, the PM said: "It is important to reach the right decisions and there is time for those decisions to be confirmed with Cabinet”.

News of the delay to the financial statement briefly raised government borrowing costs, and the pound fell slightly, but the news did not spook investors. The FTSE-100 reached a three-week high, ending the session up 0.6%, while the domestically focussed FTSE 250 index rose 1.5% to touch a fresh one-month high. A smaller-than-expected interest rate hike from the Bank of Canada also supported markets by raising hopes that major central banks will slow their pace of interest rate rises.

The Telegraph, citing analysis to be published by think tank the Resolution Foundation, notes that the two-week delay is expected to shrink the size of the black hole in the public finances by up to £10-15bn, because of a rapid fall in the interest rate paid on government gilts and a reduction in the international gas price. The newspaper also says Rishi Sunak is considering tax rises and major public spending cuts, with Whitehall departments told to find savings of from 10% to 15% each.

The price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies soared yesterday after a bill which will see them recognised as a regulated financial instrument in the UK passed its first reading in the House of Commons. The proposed Financial Services and Markets Bill, which covers the UK's post-Brexit economic strategy, was introduced during PM Rishi Sunak's time as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Boris Johnson. The bill already included measures to extend existing regulations to stablecoins, a digital asset whose price is pegged to US dollars or gold, and Andrew Griffith MP, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury and City Minister, proposed an amendment passed by MPs to clarify “that crypto assets could be brought within the scope of the existing provisions" of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 relating to regulated financial activities in the UK. "The substance here is to treat crypto like other forms of financial assets and not to prefer them, but also to bring them within the scope of regulation for the first time," he said.  The combined cryptocurrency market cap jumped some 5% to regain ground above the $1tn mark, with Bitcoin rising to $20,223, a change of 5.6% over the past 24 hours. Ethereum is up 14% in the week to $1,508, rising over 12% in the past 24 hours alone. There is speculation that Sunak intends to make Britain a crypto hub and world leader in digital asset innovation, Yahoo Finance says.

MPs on the International Trade committee (ITC) have said the government should create a "single trade strategy" to allow for better scrutiny of trade agreements. MPs on the committee want the impact of post-Brexit trade agreements on Britain's economy explained at a national, regional and sectoral level. They have complained previously that there is a “lack of clarity” from the Department for International Trade about how it will measure whether it is achieving any benefits from its negotiations on free-trade agreements. The ITC was responding to a report from the Economic and Social Research Institute think-tank, which claims Brexit has reduced overall trade flows between the continent and the UK by nearly one-fifth. Trade to the EU dropped by 20% relative to the scenario in which Brexit had not occurred, according to the analysis, while trade in the opposite direction fell 16% on the same basis. Angus Brendan MacNeil MP, chair of the ITC, said: "Since leaving the European Union, the UK has negotiated two brand-new free trade deals. Despite warm words, the government has swerved our scrutiny and deliberately prevented MPs from being given a proper say on these vitally important agreements. It’s clear that the current approach is not fit for purpose. That’s why the government must commit to full and proper scrutiny of trade agreements and accept our recommendations as a matter of urgency."

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published data yesterday showing that 1.1 million children lived in long-term workless households in 2021, 8.9% of the total number of children in the UK, and a statistic up 1% on the previous year. Of children in all workless households, 86% of them lived in households that were workless long-term. The percentage of children in long-term workless households was lowest in the South East (5.3%) and highest in the North East (16.8%).

The ONS also said yesterday that 509,000 people were paid below the National Minimum Wage in 2022, compared with 409,000 in 2019. The lowest earners were women, young people aged 16-21, working part time, in hospitality in the North East or Yorkshire and The Humber. The highest earners in the country are men, aged aged 35-49, working in London, in information and communications, finance, or insurance, and working full time. Median pay for full-time workers in the year to April 2022 was £640 a week, a fall of 2.6% after adjusting for inflation, marking the sharpest drop in real pay since the 3.3% decline during the 2010 financial crisis. Without adjusting for inflation, pay increased by 5%.

British car production dropped 6% in September, The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said yesterday. The SMMT partly blamed supply-chain snags and component shortages, but said energy costs are the single biggest concern for British automotive manufacturers, who have collectively racked up more than £300m in bills during the year to August. 63,125 units were made in Britain in September, the SMMT said, nearly half of the levels seen in 2019, before the pandemic hit. However, battery electric vehicle (BEV) production - which represents more than a third of all UK car exports - grew 16.6% in the month. The value of this particular export trade has surged to £7.9bn from £1.3bn over the last five years.

British oil giant Shell has announced a £3.45bn share buyback and plans to lift the dividend per share by 15% after better-than-expected third-quarter profits. Adjusted earnings rose to £8.18bn from £3.35bn in the third quarter a year earlier, but were down from the record £9.91bn posted in the second quarter of the year. Shell said this was a "robust performance in a turbulent economic environment". CEO Ben van Beurden said: "We are delivering robust results at a time of ongoing volatility in global energy markets”.

Telecom Plus, which trades as Utility Warehouse (UW) to offer bundled energy, mobile, broadband and insurance contracts, said it had extended its wholesale supply agreement with internet provider TalkTalk. The new deal runs for a five-year minimum term, providing "significantly improved" terms which “will ensure UW can maintain a competitive and increasingly profitable broadband proposition over the medium/long term as the shift to full fibre accelerates, further underpinning the strong trend in organic multi-service customer growth currently being achieved," it said. Telecom Plus shares have surged 20% this month as customers rushed to sign up to its plans, which offer bigger discounts when you sign up to more of the services it offers.

Turkish industrial conglomerate Eren Holdings is set to invest £600m transforming Deeside's Shotton Paper Mill into one of the world's most advanced cardboard and tissue production facilities. The huge investment will create and safeguard more than 850 jobs.

Kia is recalling 71,000 2008-2009 model year Sportage utility vehicles in the US that were previously recalled and supposedly repaired in 2016 for fire risks around the Hydraulic Electronic Control Unit that could occur while parked or driving. The car maker is advising owners to park outside until repairs are completed. Kia has identified eight vehicle fires and 15 localised melting/damage incidents since 2017 in the vehicles.

Elon Musk tweeted yesterday: "Entering Twitter HQ - let that sink in!" alongside a video of himself walking into the building carrying a bathroom basin. He also changed his Twitter profile to “Chief Twit.” According to a report by Bloomberg, the banks involved in his $44bn (£37.91bn) takeover of the social media giant have finished putting together the final credit agreement and are in the process of signing the documentation. The deal could therefore complete this week.

Credit Suisse said it planned to axe up to 9,000 jobs, raise 4 billion Swiss francs, and spin off its investment bank as it posted a SFR 4bn (£3.49bn) 3rd quarter loss. Switzerland's second-biggest bank has launched a strategic review to create "a simpler, more focused and more stable bank" following a series of scandals, including a domestic prosecution involving laundering money for a criminal gang.