8 h. ago Migrants expected to face tougher English standards and longer residency waits

An immigration White Paper due to be published next week is expected to set out the reforms, media reports have suggested.

Events

16 h. ago ‘Increasingly difficult’ for Stormont to mitigate decisions made at Westminster

Northern Ireland’s Finance Minister said decisions at Westminster have ‘significant impact’ in the region.

Events

46 h. ago Finance minister departs for London to meet British officials and investors

Finance minister departs for London to meet British officials and investors  The Express Tribune

Politics

7 d. ago Social Democrat Klingbeil to become Germany’s next finance minister

Career politician will also act as vice-chancellor

Politics

9 d. ago US tariff war hurting trade with China; M&S tells hundreds of warehouse agency staff not to come to work after cyber

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial newsBack in Beijing, China’s foreign ministry has said President Xi Jinping had not spoken to Donald Trump.The ministry also denied that the two administrations are in talks to strike a tariff deal, which contradicts a claim from Trump last week.“As far as I know, the two heads of state have not called each other recently,“I would like to reiterate that China and the U.S. have not conducted consultations or negotiations on the tariffs issue. Continue reading...

Economics

1 week ago Swiss leader says Trump administration foresees ‘privileged’ talks with 15 countries on US tariffs – US politics live

Karin Keller-Sutter, Swiss president, says Switzerland is among 15 countries with which US plans to hold negotiations to reach deals over tariffsThe Swiss president says Switzerland is among 15 countries with which the United States plans to conduct “privileged” negotiations to help reach a deal after sweeping US tariffs on dozens of countries that have shaken global markets, reports the Associated Press (AP).Karin Keller-Sutter, in an interview with broadcaster SRF published Friday, said she was “satisfied” with talks in Washington this week that included an International Monetary Fund conference and her one-on-one meeting with US treasury secretary Scott Bessent. Keller-Sutter also serves as Switzerland’s finance minister. “The United States has defined a group of 15 countries with which it wants to find a quick solution in this tariff question. Switzerland is part of this group of these 15 countries,” she told reporters separately late on Thursday in Washington, according to the ...

Politics

1 week ago Reeves to say global trade should provide ‘security for working people’

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is in Washington for the International Monetary Fund’s spring meeting of finance ministers from the G7 and G20.

Events

2 w. ago Rachel Reeves says US trip about more than 'damage limitation' as she signals UK could lower import levies on American cars in bid for trade deal with Donald Trump

The Chancellor is in Washington for IMF meetings and talks with other G20 finance ministers to discuss the impact of the US president on global commerce.

Politics

2 w. ago US ‘keen to do a deal’, says Chancellor ahead of trade talks

Rachel Reeves has travelled to the US capital for the International Monetary Fund’s spring meetings of G7 and G20 finance ministers.

Economics

2 w. ago Girl on Girl by Sophie Gilbert review – how pop culture turned a generation of women against themselves

The Pulitzer-nominated journalist recounts how modern misogyny has been shaped by a mass culture attuned to male desire and all-pervasive pornographyIn 2021, JD Vance told Fox News that senior Democrat women were just “childless cat ladies”, lacking cultural or social value compared with their married and procreating counterparts. When Taylor Swift looked down the barrel of this insult with a post on Instagram showing her posing with beloved feline Benjamin Button (from Time magazine’s photoshoot naming her 2023’s person of the year), she embraced the role of killjoy, rejecting Vance’s attempt to divide women. But even this gesture of defiance and solidarity was not enough to push back the red tide of misogyny and corruption: Trump was elected to a second term, the US was denied a female leader, and millions of women held their breath.When Sophie Gilbert, a Pulitzer-nominated journalist and critic at the Atlantic, was writing Girl on Girl, the 2025 Trump administration was just a wo...

Politics

2 w. ago Another crisis, another IMF summit: but unlike 2008, the delegates are disunited

Where once the world came together to fight the credit crunch, Trump’s tariffs will set a more divisive testWhen the world’s finance ministers and central bank governors gather at the International Monetary Fund in Washington this week, it may kindle memories of another meeting, also held against the backdrop of a global economic crisis, in autumn 2008.Then, as the aftershocks from the collapse of Lehman Brothers ripped through financial markets, central banks coordinated drastic emergency rate cuts, and the UK chancellor, Alistair Darling, urged his G7 counterparts to emulate the UK’s approach and shore up stricken banks. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago The Guardian view on Friedrich Merz’s grand coalition: gambling on a new centre ground | Editorial

The deal signed last week between the centre-right CDU and centre-left SPD paves the way for vital investment in Europe’s biggest economySome years ago, hundreds of German finance ministry staff dressed in black and formed a giant zero to salute their boss, Wolfgang Schäuble, as he left office. It was a tribute to Mr Schäuble’s extreme fiscal conservatism, which had delivered Germany’s first balanced budget in the postwar period. Amid resurgent prosperity in the Angela Merkel years, the so-called black zero – symbolising a constitutional prohibition on public debt – had gradually acquired cult status.As a new administration prepares to take power in Berlin, it seems unlikely that human euro signs will welcome the latest politician to take on Mr Schäuble’s former role. But in dramatic fashion, the spending taps are set to be turned on. Via a swiftly staged March vote in the outgoing Bundestag, “debt brake” dogma was consigned to history by the chancellor‑elec...

Politics

3 w. ago Zimbabwe starts compensating white farmers 25 years after land seizures

Step is requirement for restructuring country’s debt, including new IMF programmeZimbabwe has started to make compensation payments to white former farm owners, 25 years after Robert Mugabe’s government began confiscating land.The government paid $3.1m (£2.3m) to a “first batch” of 378 farms, the ministry of finance said in a statement on Wednesday, the first payout under a 2020 agreement to pay $3.5bn in compensation. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago UK ‘resolved to get best deal’ with US, despite American doubts about carve out

Rachel Reeves is travelling to Poland on Friday to meet European finance ministers.

Economics

3 w. ago China raises tariffs on US goods to 125% as it slams Trump for 'defying basic economic laws and common sense'

China will impose 125% tariffs on U.S. goods from Saturday, up from the 84% previously announced, the finance ministry said on Friday.

Economics

3 w. ago China raises tariffs on US goods from 84% to 125%, finance ministry says – business live

China’s finance ministry said it will resolutely take countermeasures against Trump tariffs and fight to the endUS stocks fall again after rally following Trump’s shock retreat on tariffsLife in Shanghai, China’s commercial capital, goes on but anti-US sentiment is hardeningThe US dollar slumped on Friday as waning confidence in the US economy prompted investors to ditch US assets to the benefit of safe havens like the Swiss franc, yen and euro, as well as gold.The yellow metal recorded a new all-time peak in early Asia trade, and the franc notched a fresh decade high, Reuters reports.There has been a pronounced ‘sell US’ vibe flowing through broad markets and into the classic safe-haven assets, with the USD losing the safe-haven bid. Continue reading...

Economics

3 w. ago Zimbabwe makes first compensation payments to white farmers over land seizures

Zimbabwe has started compensating white farmers who lost land during chaotic and often-violent land reforms more than 20 years ago, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said

Events

4 w. ago China slaps 84% revenge tariffs on US goods in huge new escalation hours after Trump imposed 104% levy

Xi Jinping's China will impose 84% tariffs on U.S. goods from Thursday, up from the 34% previously announced, the finance ministry said on Wednesday. 

Politics

4 w. ago Trump issues executive order to block state climate crisis policies – US politics live

Move directs US attorney general to block laws addressing carbon emissions and comes hours after president issued orders to increase coal productionChina will impose 84% tariffs on US goods from Thursday, up from the 34% previously announced, the finance ministry said on Wednesday.In early March, the Trump administration sent warning letters to 60 US universities it said were facing “potential enforcement actions” for what it described as “failure to protect Jewish students on campus” in the wake of widespread pro-Palestinian protests on campuses last year. Continue reading...

Politics

4 w. ago Tariffs driving India to strike trade deals, finance minister says ahead of UK talks

Nirmala Sitharam says turmoil forcing countries to seek accords beyond old ideological and political tiesIndia is seeking to strike more trade deals with other countries at a time of “global uncertainty”, its finance minister, Nirmala Sitharam, said before talks with the UK chancellor, Rachel Reeves.Sitharam, who serves as finance and corporate affairs minister in Narendra Modi’s government, said she was hopeful the UK and India would finalise a free trade deal “sooner rather than later”. Continue reading...

Economics