Economy news

• EU asks China to voluntarily limit car exports

  17-09-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  Brussels wants Beijing to restrict sales of Chinese hybrid vehicles to around 15% of the EU market
  
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• CATL develops pick-up truck batteries for US despite trade barriers

  20-09-2026 13:58 via ft.com
  Comments from Chinese company come ahead of President Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington
  
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• The perils of productivity numbers

  20-09-2026 13:00 via ft.com
  The forces driving growth in output per hour matter more than the decimal-point estimate itself
  
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• Is the Bank of Japan right to fear an overshoot in inflation?

  20-09-2026 13:00 via ft.com
  Market Questions is the FT’s guide to the week ahead
  
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• How English designer Paul Smith built his luxury fashion brand

  20-09-2026 12:00 via moneyweek.com
  
  In Paul Smith's new memoir, Threads, My Life in Style, he recalls how he went to his deserted offices during the Covid lockdown dressed in a suit in an effort “to make life seem more normal”. There he found 18 containers of milk burst on the floor and spent three hours mopping it up. He found himself thinking: “I wonder if my friend Giorgio Armani is doing something like this now? Or Tom Ford?” When he recounted this to his colleagues, “they all said the same thing:
  
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• Passive investments could put your pension portfolio in danger

  20-09-2026 11:30 via moneyweek.com
  
  The growth of passive investment means pension savers could be sleepwalking into disaster. Amid growing speculation about the potential for a stock market correction – or even just a prolonged period of flat returns – investment experts are increasingly worried about the risks many pension savers are unwittingly exposed to. Passive investment has compounded such dangers.The reality is that most savers in workplace pension schemes never make an active investment choice – the emp
  
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• Metallurgical coal is booming – should you invest?

  20-09-2026 11:00 via moneyweek.com
  
  Metallurgical coal has spent the past few years as the industrial commodity nobody wanted to admit owning. It sits under the same coal label as the thermal coal that funds have been told to divest from, even though it does an entirely different job. Capital has stayed away, generalist investors have ignored it, and the sector has traded as if the world were quietly winding it down.That is starting to look like a mistake. The metallurgical coal price has rallied from $224 a tonne to $282 in a few
  
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• Wealth taxes are pure “slopulism”

  20-09-2026 10:00 via moneyweek.com
  
  Gary Stevenson, a gobby former City trader turned socialist firebrand, known for his advocacy of a wealth tax and “for dressing like a 16-year-old scally despite being a 39-year-old man”, as Christopher Snowdon puts it in The Critic, was briefly all over the news during the silly season, when Parliament was in recess, and there was hence nothing better for political hacks to talk about. Stevenson's perhaps most stunning achievement was to make and present a Channel 4 documentary abou
  
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• The union shock coming for UK employers

  20-09-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  New legislation brings far more companies into contact with trade unions — but many businesses are unprepared
  
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• The Gulf cargo trade that vanished

  20-09-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  The Strait of Hormuz was a transit hub for goods from helium to corn. Businesses have battled to find alternative routes
  
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• Low UK growth is a product of neglect

  20-09-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  Governments need to start planning for the long term again
  
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• Israel’s settler economy braces for European sanctions

  20-09-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  Penalties against businesses on occupied Palestinian land from the UK, France and others could have far-reaching consequences
  
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• Carney takes his investment pitch from ‘Maple Davos’ to Strasbourg

  19-09-2026 12:00 via ft.com
  Canada’s prime minister appeals to Wall St and the EU in his effort to diversify the economy away from the US
  
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• Higher rates, meet indebted consumers

  19-09-2026 11:30 via ft.com
  Will there be a tipping point?
  
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• ‘Infrastructure is no longer a sleepy income play’

  19-09-2026 11:00 via moneyweek.com
  
  A decade ago, the idea that infrastructure could be an exciting, growth-focused investment was unlikely. The sector was seen as a source of steady income that would hopefully keep pace with inflation, but probably not offer much more. Talk to aninfrastructure specialist today and it's clear how much has changed in a few years, especially when it comes to energy and power.In the past two weeks, I've spoken to Jean-Hugues de Lamaze of Ecofin Global Utilities and Infrastructure (LSE: EGL) and Danie
  
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• A worthless inheritance: what to do with unwanted artwork

  19-09-2026 09:30 via moneyweek.com
  
  There is a great wave of money – and artwork – heading the way of younger generations. The value of the “great wealth transfer” from the post-war baby-boomer generation in Britain alone has been estimated at £5.5 trillion over the next 30 years. Baby boomers were prolific art buyers. “Spending on art accelerated as the rich got richer, moved into ever-larger houses and became eager to splash out on discretionary purchases,” says Felix Salmon on Bloomberg
  
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• 8 of the best houses for sale with walled gardens

  19-09-2026 09:30 via moneyweek.com
  
  Saltford House, Saltford, SomersetHamptonsHamptonsHamptonsHamptonsHamptonsA Grade II-listed, late Georgian house with a walled rear garden with a large lawn, a patio and a greenhouse. The house has decorative plasterwork, wood floors, period fireplaces and a large kitchen with French doors. 7 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 4 receptions, 3-bed flat, garden room.Price: £2.75m Hamptons 0117-911 1455Allardice Castle, Inverbervie, Montrose, AngusStrutt & ParkerStrutt & ParkerStrutt & Parker
  
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• ‘Apple's price “iFlation” is bad for capitalism’

  19-09-2026 09:00 via moneyweek.com
  
  Who says Apple doesn't innovate any more? After the iPhone and iPad, we now have something entirely new: iFlation. When the technology giant launched its latest phone last week, most of the attention focused on the way it folded in half. But there was something else eye-catching about it as well. It costs almost $2,000. A top-of-the-range version will retail at more than $3,000.That's a lot for a phone and a big increase on earlier versions. When the first iPhone was launched back in 2007, it co
  
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• What's behind the power shift in the music industry?

  19-09-2026 08:00 via moneyweek.com
  
  How is the music industry doing?The music industry is doing an awful lot better than it was ten years ago and far better than many media sectors. In the first decade of this century, the global music business had a famously torrid time of it, as consumers pinched content for free via file-sharing sites. Sales of physical CDs collapsed and the nascent digital-download channel failed to make up the difference. Between 1999 and 2014, global revenues shrank by 40% and reasons to be cheerful were thi
  
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• Admit it — is this your worst financial habit?

  19-09-2026 06:54 via ft.com
  Not even I am immune from this late-night drain on my bank account
  
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• Thirty years of buy-to-let: does it have a future?

  19-09-2026 06:24 via ft.com
  Rents and tenant demand are rising, but landlords are under increasing pressure.
  
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• The Iran energy shock is wrongfooting the world

  19-09-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  Don’t obsess about the crude price and don’t think this crisis is like its predecessors
  
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• Housebuilders aren’t the only ones who benefit from ‘Help to Buy’

  19-09-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  A new equity loan scheme could help people get on the property ladder, though the government might struggle to afford it
  
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• Five ways the Iran energy shock is wrongfooting the world

  19-09-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  Don’t obsess about the crude price and don’t think this crisis is like its predecessors
  
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• Brussels rebuffs calls for EU-wide digital services tax

  19-09-2026 06:00 via ft.com
  Global efforts towards tech levy must be exhausted first, says European commissioner Wopke Hoekstra
  
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• UK’s top taxpayer says he would ‘not wish to be reborn’ in Britain

  18-09-2026 22:00 via ft.com
  Betfred founder Fred Done threatens 500 shop closures over tax rises that have left him fearful for the UK’s prospects
  
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• Starmer looked at softening £100,000 ‘tax trap’ for higher earners

  18-09-2026 19:39 via ft.com
  Andy Burnham’s government is not considering a similar move against 60% rate viewed by economists as a dysfunction in tax system
  
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• The relentless creep of Britain’s compliance state

  18-09-2026 18:20 via ft.com
  While some rules are just fiddly and frustrating, others do real harm
  
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• Warshing the walk

  18-09-2026 17:30 via ft.com
  Fed chair Kevin Warsh delivered the rate rise as was widely expected at September’s rate meeting
  
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• Canada plays down EU ‘associate member’ label

  18-09-2026 17:26 via ft.com
  ‘We’d rather people focus on the substance,’ says ambassador-designate to the EU
  
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