Julian Harris

1 week ago | bloomberg.com | Julian Harris

This article is for subscribers only. Ahead of the last Bank of England interest rate decision, I quietly predicted an 8-1 vote against a cut and suspected that the MPC would start preparing markets for a possible hold in May, too. So I felt quite smug when the decision and accompanying comments from Andrew Bailey came in pretty much on the money. But things can change rapidly and it’s dangerous to rest on one’s laurels (just ask Real Madrid).

2 weeks ago | bloomberg.com | Julian Harris

This article is for subscribers only. At the time of writing, markets are not entirely convinced that the Bank of England will cut rates by a quarter of a percentage point next month. It’s quite a change from yesterday morning, when pricing suggested that a whopping half-point reduction might be on the cards. This slightly geeky example, based on the swaps market, shows the extent to which the British economy is hurled around by forces beyond the control of anyone here on our islands.

3 weeks ago | bloomberg.com | Julian Harris

This article is for subscribers only. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds is an affable chap. Remember that cliché used to describe belligerent footballers over the decades — “he could start a fight in an empty room”? Well, Reynolds is the polar opposite: he’s a man who could quieten down a disagreement in a debating chamber.

3 weeks ago | bloomberg.com | Julian Harris |Francine Lacqua

Britain’s trade secretary expressed confidence in reducing the new 10% tariff imposed on the country’s exports by Donald Trump, putting pressure on UK officials locked in talks with the White House over a deal to bring the two economies closer. “I believe they can do,” Jonathan Reynolds told Bloomberg TV on Thursday morning, when asked if the US rates could ever be removed or reduced.

4 weeks ago | bloomberg.com | Julian Harris

Rachel Reeves must have spent at least two months coming up with the cunning and controversial ways in which she turned a £4 billion deficit against her fiscal rules into a £9.9 billion surplus. And yet it could all be wiped out in the space of a week. That’s the scale of the threat from Donald Trump’s expanding tariff war.