The Bank of England (BoE) will need to raise interest rates further

The Bank of England (BoE) will need to raise interest rates further, but not as high as the 5.25% level which financial markets had priced in before the central bank's latest rate decision, the BoE Chief Economist Huw Pill said on Friday, in a presentation to businesses.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will set out tax rises and spending cuts totalling £60bn at the autumn statement on 17th November under current plans, including at least £35bn in cuts, the Guardian claims. The government must submit key points of the autumn statement to the Office for Budget Responsibility by this morning. Meanwhile, cabinet office minister Oliver Dowden told Sky News yesterday: "It's right that we take difficult decisions. I have to say to you and your viewers there will be, unfortunately, more significant difficult decisions to come in the autumn statement."

Trade minister Greg Hands will visit Taiwan this week for trade talks and meet President Tsai Ing-wen, in the latest high-level engagement between a Western government and the island which China claims as its own territory.  Reuters reports The Department for International Trade as saying the minister will also co-host the 25th annual UK-Taiwan Trade Talks during his two-day visit. Both the UK and Taiwan are bidding to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Current members agreed in February that Britain can proceed with its application. China has also applied to join.

Construction sector output rose at the fastest pace in five months during October, according to the S&P Global/CIPS UK Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) survey of construction companies, which gave the sector a score of 53.2 in October, up from 52.3 in September. A score above 50 signals growth. Nevertheless, new orders and business optimism within the sector fell sharply. Tim Moore, economics director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, which compiles the survey, said the reduction in total new work was the first since May 2020, which fuelled increased concerns about longer-term tender opportunities. He added: “The forward-looking survey indicators highlight that growth will be harder to achieve in the coming months as rising borrowing costs, economic uncertainty and cost constraints all had a negative influence on order books in October”.

UK business confidence overall has also fallen to its lowest level since the third national covid lockdown in February 2021, data from the latest edition of accountancy and business advisory firm BDO’s business trends report reveals. Both business optimism and output declined in October to 94.63 and 93.10, respectively, sitting in contractionary territory, below the 95-point mark, which is regarded as the watershed between growth and decline, an indicator of a recession.

House prices fell 0.4% in October, after a 0.1% fall in September, Halifax said this morning. The mortgage lender said this was the fastest monthly rate since February 2021. In annual terms, house prices were 8.3% higher in October, slowing from 9.8% in September.

British new car registrations rose for the third consecutive month in October, up by around a quarter, according to preliminary industry data released by The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), which said it expects a market recovery in 2023.

Around 700 workers in ground handling, airside transport and cargo side of Heathrow Airport are to strike for three days from 18 November. Union Unite says the action has been timed to cause disruption in the run up to the World Cup in Qatar, which begins on 20th November, and will cause delays at Heathrow terminals 2, 3 and 4. The staff, employed by Dnata and Menzies, are calling for higher pay. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the union's members at the two firms "are simply seeking a decent pay rise" and that "both companies are highly profitable and can fully afford to make a fair pay increase." Dnata had offered its workers a 5% increase, the union said, while the offers for Menzies workers varied between 2% and 6%. Unite said it expected Qatar Airways, which has put on extra flights for football fans, to be "hit heavily" by the strike action, as will other airlines, including Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Emirates. Passengers travelling to the United States for the Thanksgiving holiday might also be hit. Alex Doisneau, managing director of Dnata UK, called the industrial action "disappointing" and "costly". She said its staff have been offered a pay award which is "in line with inflation and among the best in the industry". Menzies said the strike action "will benefit no one".

Rail strikes planned for today and over the past weekend were called off, but Network Rail says the RMT union’s announcement came too late to prevent disruption, which will continue today. The strikes have been halted for what the RMT says will be "a period of intensive negotiations" with Network Rail and train operators. The TSSA union had already called off November action at Network Rail so that discussions could continue, and on Friday suspended planned rail strikes on Saturday, Monday and Wednesday at different firms. It had planned to take strike action at five train firms including Avanti West Coast and West Midlands Trains, the BBC says. Avanti says it will not reinstate services on Monday and Wednesday. West Midlands Trains said a reduced timetable will remain in place until today.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is calling for mandatory reporting of the disability pay gap following new figures showing disabled workers now earn a sixth (17.2%) less than non-disabled workers, with the pay gap currently standing at £3,731 per year for someone working a 35-hour week. Disabled women face the biggest pay gap: non-disabled men are paid on average 35% more than disabled women, equivalent to £3.93 an hour, or £7,144 a year, the union says. TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “It’s time to introduce mandatory disability pay gap reporting to shine a light on inequality at work. Without this, millions of disabled workers will be consigned to years of lower pay and in-work poverty”. The union body has written to women and equalities minister Kemi Badenoch urging the move for all employers with more than 50 employees.

Research by the Money and Pensions Service suggests a quarter of UK adults have less than £100 set aside in savings, leaving them vulnerable to rising and unexpected bills. The survey of 3,000 people found that 17% - or one in six - of those asked held nothing in savings. Another 5% had less than £50 and a further 4% had between £50 and £100 set aside.

Six in ten Britons believe they will have less money to spend over the Christmas period than last year, according to a survey published by Deloitte this morning. 38% plan to switch to cheaper brands or stores, and 35% plan to do at least part of their shop for Christmas dinner at a discount supermarket. 11% of consumers intend to purchase gifts either second hand or through reselling platforms, while 8% plan to buy none at all.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has concluded that the merger of two companies making ready-to-bake dough products could substantially lessen competition and leave British grocers “facing higher prices and lower quality products, which could ultimately be passed on to their customers”. Cérélia, the largest supplier of own-brand ready-to-bake products, bought Jus-Rol, the largest supplier of branded ready-to-bake products, in June. Together, the two companies account for nearly two-thirds of all such products sold in Britain, including staples such as shortcrust and puff pastry, pizza and patisserie dough, which consumers spend more than £100m on each year. The CMA says its Phase 1 investigation found that Jus-Rol and Cérélia compete for the same space on many supermarket shelves and that there are few alternative suppliers of either branded or own-brand products. Grocery retailers also told the CMA that their ability to trade off Jus-Rol and Cérélia when purchasing these products enables them to get a better deal for customers. The CMA will take further soundings from interested parties before issuing a final report in January.

Russia's largest lender, Sberbank, says it is suing FTSE 100 miner Glencore for €117m (£102.45m)over unpaid oil supplies, Reuters reports. The database of Moscow's Arbitration Court showed this morning that Sberbank was seeking to recover debt and penalties over two agreements, worth roughly €58m (£50.79m) each. Neither Sberbank nor Glencore were immediately available for comment. It is not clear whether Russia’s invasion of Ukraine affected these deals. Hearings are scheduled to start in Moscow on 6th December.

House of Fraser and Sports Direct owner Frasers Group said on Friday that it has increased its stake Hugo Boss again. The company, which also owns Flannels and Jack Wills, among others, now has 3.025m shares of common stock in the German fashion brand, which represent a stake of 4.3% in Hugo Boss. In addition, it now has 21.139m shares of common stock via the sale of put options, up from 20.09m previously, representing a stake of 30.03%. This takes its overall stake in Boss to 34.33%, up from 32.8% last month. The stake is worth around €1bn (£875m). Frasers also announced last month that it had lifted its stake in ASOS to 5.1%, making it the biggest shareholder in the online fashion retailer.

DFS Furniture has reported a £36m pre-tax profit, saying that since early September, group order volumes had grown year-on-year, and also relative to the pre-pandemic 2019 comparator. The business had "proven to be resilient", and given its "inherent strengths", it was "well-positioned" to maintain its trend of market share gains across the economic cycle,” DFS said.

A New York judge has ruled in favour of FTSE 100 sports betting giant Flutter in a dispute with Rupert Murdoch's Fox Corporation over the value at which Fox should be allowed to exercise an option over an 18.6% stake in US sports betting platform FanDuel. Fox filed an arbitration claim against Flutter in April 2021, arguing that the fair market value for it to buy the FanDuel stake was the same price which Flutter itself had paid when it increased its shareholding in December 2020. However, Flutter has argued that the valuation - roughly $11bn (£9.67bn) - is barely half the fair valuation that Fox should now be obliged to pay. The ruling means Fox will now be required to hand over no less than $3.72bn (£3.27bn) if it chooses to exercise its option, based on a valuation of $20bn (£17.58bn). Flutter owns 95% of FanDuel, having acquired its most recent stake from a consortium backed by private equity firm KKR.

FTSE 100 chemicals company Croda International said this morning that group finance director Jez Maiden will retire from the group after eight years in the role. He will be succeeded by Louisa Burdett on 13th March. Burdett served four years as Meggitt's CFO before it was acquired by Parker-Hannifin in September.