- 'Difficult day': Oct 7 commemorations begin with festival memorial
- Commemorations begin for anniversary of attack on Israel
- Tunisia voting ends as Saied eyes re-election with critics behind bars
- Drowned by hurricane, remote N.Carolina towns now struggle for water
- Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Too hot by day, Dubai's floodlit beaches are packed at night
- A 'forgotten' valley in storm-hit North Carolina, desperate for help
- Italy targets climate activists in 'anti-Gandhi' demo clampdown
- US trade chief defends tariff hikes when paired with investment
- EU court blocks French ban on vegetable 'steak' labelling
- Meta AI turns pictures into videos with sound
- US dockworkers return to ports after three-day strike
- DR Congo to begin mpox vaccination campaign Saturday in east
- Meta must limit data use for targeted ads: EU court
- Oil extends gains, jobs report lifts Wall Street
- US hiring soars past expectations in sign of resilient market
- As EU targets Chinese cars, European rivals sputter
- Top EU court finds against FIFA in key transfer market ruling
- Oil extends gains, Hong Kong stocks resume rally
- 'A man provides': Ukrainian miners send families away as Russia advances
- EU states greenlight extra tariffs on EVs from China
- Hong Kong stocks resume rally, oil dips after Middle East-fuelled surge
- Crude stable after Israel-Iran surge, Hong Kong stocks resume gains
- Hera spacecraft to probe asteroid deflected by defence test
- US dockworkers to head back to work after tentative deal
- After Helene's destruction, North Carolina starts to rebuild
- Dockers end three-day strike at Montreal port
- What next for OpenAI after $157 billion bonanza?
- Israel-Hamas war causes 86-percent dive in Gaza GDP: IMF
- Milan's Morata moves house after Inter-fan town mayor 'violates' privacy
- 'Devastating' storm hits Augusta National but Masters will go on
- Relief in Brazil, Asia over delay to EU deforestation rules
- Oil prices jump, stocks fall on Middle East tensions
- Biden says 'discussing' possible Israeli strikes on Iran oil facilities
- Oil prices rise, stocks fall on Middle East tensions
- Oil rallies, stocks mostly retreat on Middle East tensions
- Phasing out teen smoking could save 1.2 mn lives: study
- 'Welcome relief': Asia producers hail EU deforestation law delay
- Japan PM slated to announce plans for 'happiness index'
- Turkish inflation falls less than expected in September at 49.4%
- Easing inflation lifts profit at UK supermarket Tesco
- Skiing calls on UN climate science to combat melting future
- China wine industry looks to breed climate resilience
- Tokyo rallies on weak yen, Hong Kong drops after surge
- Dutch airline KLM unveils 'firm' cost-cutting measures
- Carpe diem: the Costa Rican women turning fish into fashion
- Senegal looks to aquaculture as fish stocks dwindle
- Will AI one day win a Nobel Prize?
- Climate change, economics muddy West's drive to curb Chinese EVs
UK reports further bleak economic data
UK government borrowing surged and retail sales slumped in September, official data showed Friday, dealing a further economic blow to a country in political crisis.
Public sector net borrowing stood at £20 billion ($22 billion), the second-largest September level on record, as decades-high inflation sees interest on debt repayments balloon.
Retail sales volumes tumbled 1.4 percent as sky-high prices curbed consumer purchasing. The figure was better, however, than the 1.7-percent slide in August.
The data comes one day after Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned in the wake of markets turmoil triggered by her budget of tax cuts funded by debt.
The public borrowing figure exceeded analysts' consensus of £17.2 billion, which was already far above the government's own prediction.
"The weakness in retail sales and further overshoot of the... (government) public borrowing forecast won't make the next prime minister's task any easier in navigating the economy through" various crises, concluded Ruth Gregory, senior UK economist at Capital Economics.
Interest payments on government debt surged to £7.7 billion in September, "largely reflecting the broader economic environment of soaring inflation", noted CEBR economist Pushpin Singh.
Government borrowing is linked to the wider RPI measure of inflation, which stands at a huge 12.6 percent in Britain.
- Next PM -
Contenders bidding to succeed Truss on Friday opened a hectic weekend of campaigning, but opposition parties demanded that UK voters get their own say to end months of political chaos via a general election.
Truss succeeded Boris Johnson on September 6 after a weeks-long campaign against Tory rival Rishi Sunak, who is now a favourite to take over in the coming days.
Former finance minister Sunak had warned in the battle to succeed Johnson that tax cuts promised by Truss when government debt had already soared on Covid interventions was the wrong policy to pursue.
He was proved right as the budget sent the pound crashing to a record-low close to parity with the dollar and triggered yields on government bonds to soar.
That caused Truss to U-turn on most of her planned tax cuts, ultimately costing her the job of prime minister.
On Friday, sterling slid one percent against the dollar, before recovering slightly, while the yield on the British government's 30-year bond climbed back above four percent.
"Uncertainty in British politics remains rife, which will do little to inspire confidence in UK assets," said Matthew Ryan, head of market strategy at global financial services firm Ebury.
Separate data Friday showed British consumer confidence stuck near historic lows despite a slight improvement this month.
GfK's Consumer Confidence Index rose two points to minus 47.
D.Goldberg--CPN