NatWest boss warns against higher bank taxes as lender’s profits rise 30%

NatWest Group’s chief executive has warned the government against increasing taxes on banks in the autumn budget as the high street lender reported a 30% jump in profits.Paul Thwaite said he understood the “difficult choices” that the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, had to make in order to help close a potential £30bn shortfall in the public finances but argued she needed to “balance fiscal discipline” with “policies that create stability, consistency and support growth”.Twaite said on a call with journalists on Friday: “I think the government should be thoughtful about signals it sends to investors who are looking at the UK as a long-term home for capital.”His comments came as NatWest reported a strong jump in profits, which grew 30.4% to £2

Dash for gold helps drive retail sales in Great Britain to three-year high

Sales at UK retailers rose unexpectedly last month to their highest level since July 2022, according to official figures, boosted by tech purchases amid the release of the new iPhone 17 as well as strong online demand for gold.Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that retail sales volumes rose by 0.5% in September, the fourth consecutive monthly increase, confounding economists’ forecasts of a 0.2% monthly drop.Sales of products at computer and telecommunication retailers grew strongly last month

Car production slumps to a 73-year low after JLR cyber-attack

Car production in British factories slumped in September to the lowest level for the month since 1952 after Jaguar Land Rover was hit by an unprecedented cyber-attack.JLR, Britain’s largest automotive employer, was forced to shut down all its computer systems at the start of September and was unable to make another car until early October.That contributed to a 27% slump in total UK car production in September compared with the same month a year earlier, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), a lobby group.Car output dropped to 51,100, from 70,000 in September 2024, while output for the first nine months of the year was down by 8%. Van production has also slumped by nearly 40% so far this year, after the closure by the Vauxhall owner Stellantis of its factory in Luton

Battle between Netherlands and China over chipmaker could disrupt car factories, companies say

Car companies across Europe and Japan including Volvo, Volkswagen, Honda and Nissan have warned that the battle between the Netherlands and China over control of the chipmaker Nexperia could hit production at factories.Last week’s decision by the Dutch government to take control of the Chinese-owned chipmaker, which is based in the Netherlands, has sent shock waves across the car industry, which is already facing potential shortages of products such as magnets amid China’s latest restrictions on rare earths exports.The Hague said at the time that it was taking control of Nexperia to safeguard Europe’s supply of semiconductors and that it had invoked a cold-war era law to take effective control of the company following concerns raised by the US about the Chinese owner, Wingtech.That decision caused an immediate rift with Beijing, which banned all exports from the chipmaker, escalating the already tense relations between China and the US before a potential meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping next week in Korea.The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, whose members include Nissan, Toyota, Honda and Mazda, said on Thursday it had received a warning from Nexperia that chips could now be in short supply, potentially holding up manufacturing

UK manufacturers hit by largest drop in orders since 2020; FTSE 100 hits record high – as it happened

British manufacturers see the weakest prospects for orders over the next three months since 2020, new data from the Confederation of British Industry shows.The CBI’s latest healthcheck on manufacturing has found that business sentiment deteriorated this month, with goods producers expecting the total volume of new orders to decline in the three months to January.Business sentiment deteriorated in October. Export optimism for the year ahead also declined further. pic

Oil price jumps and FTSE 100 hits new high after Trump puts sanctions on Russian firms

Oil prices jumped and energy companies helped the FTSE 100 to a record high after Donald Trump announced new sanctions on Russia’s two biggest oil producers.Brent crude increased by 5.7% to $66.13 a barrel after the news of the fresh restrictions on Rosneft and Lukoil, as the US president ramps up pressure on Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine.The jump in oil price also boosted shares in the energy companies Shell and BP by about 3%, which in turn helped to drive the FTSE 100 to a record high of 9,594