Key events3m agoUK government borrowing costs ease, oil prices fall50m agoIntroduction: UK wage growth slows and unemployment rises as firms react to Iran warShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this featureUK government borrowing costs ease, oil prices fallUK government borrowing costs have eased this morning, while crude oil prices have also fallen.The yield, or interest rate, on the 10-year gilt (as UK government bonds are known), dropped 5 basis points to around 5%. The 30-year yield fell 4 basis points to 5.7%.Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, is down 1.3% at $110.68 a barrel.On the stock markets, the FTSE 100 index climbed 52 points, or 0.5%, to 10,376.“With unemployment at 5%, the expectation is that it will rise this year as business uncertainty grows amid the UK’s political unrest and the Iran War,” said Patrick Milnes, head of policy for people and work at the British Chambers of Commerce. The BCC expects it to increase to 5.5%.
double quotation markA further drop in vacancies, now at their lowest outside the pandemic for more than a decade, suggests businesses are pausing recruitment. This is unsurprising as labour costs remain a key concern.
But with the conflict in Iran likely to drive higher inflation later in the year, as unemployment also rises and growth remains weak, the possibility of stagflation is very real.
