All the day’s economic and financial news, as the Bank of England, the European Central Bank and the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey all set interest rates
- Breaking: John Lewis profits have slumped 99%
- Company blames ‘challenging’ conditions
Breaking: the John Lewis Partnership has seen its profits all-but wiped out in the last six months.
The group, which owns Waitrose and the John Lewis department stores, has reported a 99% slump in pre-tax profits (before exceptional items) to just £1.2m in the first half of the year. That’s down from aroud £83m a year earlier.
“These are challenging times in retail. Our profits before exceptionals are in line with what we said they would be at our Strategy Update in June.
We’re continuing to improve our offer for customers while ensuring we have the financial strength to continue developing our business going forward.
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and business.
It’s a huuuuge day for central bank news. Policymakers at the Bank of England, the European Central Bank and the Bank of Turkey are all meeting today to set monetary policy, and potentially unleash a few fireworks too.
Related: Mark Carney agrees to stay at Bank of England until January 2020
ECB is expected to cut its forecast for Eurozone growth rate, reports @mattmiller1973 @BloombergTV, chart @ECB pic.twitter.com/uQOeUcnHzw
A rate rise would be symbolic for the global financial community. One reason why the lira fell so sharply over the summer was partly due to fears about the political atmosphere and President Erdogan taking control of the central bank for his own economic benefit.
He spoke out vociferously against rate hikes, saying that higher interest rates did not dampen inflation, which goes against traditional economic theory. He also placed his son-in-law in the finance ministry, both things spooked investors’ and triggered the Turkish financial market crisis.
Credibility is the word – #Turkey‘s c. bank is expected to raise interest rates at Thursday’s MPC meeting. Predictions for the hike vary widely btw 225 bps to 725 bps. “The decision would reflect the prioritization of Turkish authorities’ concerns” https://t.co/ZGvrQHz0he
European Opening Calls:#FTSE 7302 -0.16%#DAX 12004 -0.24%#CAC 5317 -0.29%#MIB 20914 -0.23%#IBEX 9283 -0.26%