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The IMF has urged European governments to pass on rising energy costs to consumers to encourage “energy saving” and a shift towards greener power while protecting poorer households. European governments which have tried to shield households from soaring costs with price controls, tax cuts and subsidies “should allow the full increase in fuels costs to

Nancy Pelosi pledged an “ironclad” US commitment to Taiwan during a historic visit to the country on Wednesday that has infuriated China and raised warnings that military manoeuvres Beijing announced in retaliation would amount to a blockade of the island. The comments from the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, made during a meeting

Boris Johnson sometimes joked that he dreamt of shaking up the Treasury by making John Redwood, the former cabinet minister and Thatcherite radical, his chancellor of the exchequer. It stayed a dream. His first two chancellors were orthodox fiscal conservatives. Liz Truss, the frontrunner to succeed Johnson as prime minister, is given to similarly puckish musings.

European equities slipped in morning trade on Wednesday after hawkish comments from the Federal Reserve clouded market hopes that the US central bank would ease the pace of rate rises to counter an economic slowdown. The Stoxx 600 slipped 0.1 per cent in morning trading, with London’s FTSE 100 up 0.2 per cent and Germany’s

Just after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan, she published an article arguing that her controversial visit was critical to demonstrating American support for the country as it faces mounting pressure from China. “In the face of the Chinese Communist party’s accelerating aggression, our congressional delegation’s visit should be seen as an unequivocal

In the spring of 1992, Japan’s senior intelligence officials made a fairly standard decision to deny entry to Reverend Moon Sun-myung, the late founder of South Korea’s Unification Church, on the grounds that he had previously served in US prison for tax evasion. Shortly afterwards, though, the religious leader sailed through security checks to enter

The British empire was built in the age of coal, a fuel the UK had in spades. The US became a superpower in the era of oil, of which it had plenty. China’s rise has come as the world starts switching to a greener energy system needing minerals and metals for battery and solar industries

The two men going head to head to become Kenya’s next president agree on one thing: China is at the heart of next week’s election. For deputy president William Ruto, it is the spread of Chinese nationals in cities, many of whom are trying to earn a living selling local street food dishes. And former

Accountants should stop complaining about extra scrutiny and fines for audit failures and improve the quality of their work, said the head of the sector’s UK watchdog, which imposed record financial sanctions on the industry last year. Auditors have faced heavy criticism in recent years after failing to raise the alarm in a series of

Molson Coors’ chief executive said cost inflation is now his biggest concern after the US brewer experienced a further jump in prices for inputs like barley, aluminium and freight. That upward trend was taking some of the shine off consumer demand that otherwise appeared resilient despite broader concerns over rising interest rates, inflation and a

Bain & Co, the Boston-based global management consultant, was on Tuesday hit with a three-year ban from tendering for British government contracts because of its “grave professional misconduct” in a major corruption scandal in South Africa. Jacob Rees-Mogg, Cabinet Office minister, told Bain that the affair had rendered the company’s integrity “questionable” and that he

BP’s problem, like that of the other oil supermajors, is it has more money than it can justify what to do with. BP knows what it would like to do with the windfall profits being made from the Ukraine-induced rise in energy prices: return them to shareholders. It announced a 10 per cent rise in

Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan on Tuesday night in the highest-level visit by a US official for decades, defying Chinese threats of a military response. The trip by the Speaker of the US House of Representatives has become a test of how far Beijing will go to deter foreign support for Taiwan and of China

The writer is a former deputy governor of the National Bank of Ukraine  Vladimir Putin infamously predicted that Ukraine would be conquered in a matter of days. The west was equally sceptical about Ukraine’s chances of surviving a Russian onslaught. However, it has been more than 150 days since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion

Liz Truss was on Tuesday forced to abandon her plan to cut the pay of public sector workers living in poorer areas of Britain by a total of £8.8bn, after the proposal drew ferocious cross-party criticism. The foreign secretary’s Tory leadership rival Rishi Sunak had claimed Truss’s plan for regional pay settlements would leave millions

Asian markets usually ignore imminent visits by US politicians below secretary of state grade. Not when the politician is Democratic bigwig Nancy Pelosi and her mooted destination is Taiwan. Indices bumped downwards in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. The Taiwan dollar plunged to a two-year low. Chinese warplanes have been roaring over the Taiwan Strait.

The writer is professor of public policy at the University of Cambridge The IMF has made it official: growth will be slow and inflation high for the foreseeable future. For the UK, expected to be one of the worst-performing major economies, this grim outlook comes on the heels of slow growth since the financial crisis.

This article is an on-site version of our Inside Politics newsletter. Sign up here to get the newsletter sent straight to your inbox every weekday. Liz Truss has promised to save £11bn a year by cutting pay for public sector workers — including civil servants, teachers and nurses — outside London and the South-East. The

Stocks fell and US government bond prices rose as US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s expected visit to Taiwan raised the prospect of a forceful response from China’s military. Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng index fell as much as 3.2 per cent on Tuesday, later trimming some of its losses. China’s CSI 300 index of Shanghai-

President Xi Jinping’s wolf warrior diplomats excel at withering rhetoric when they want to belittle and dismiss people whose words and deeds, as they so often say, have “hurt the feelings” of all 1.4bn people in the People’s Republic of China. Xi had ample opportunity to instruct China’s diplomats and its state media apparatus, which

China is ratcheting up military activity around Taiwan ahead of a potential visit by US Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, who is expected to land in Taipei on Tuesday night. Several Chinese fighter jets flew close to the median line that divides the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday morning, according to a Taiwanese