Falling petrol prices drove U.K. inflation down by more than expected in the year to March, the BBC reported. Inflation was 2.6%, down from a rate of 2.8% in February, according to official data. But the fall may only be temporary as analysts say it's expected to spike from April as rising bills and higher business costs take hold. "The only significant offset came from the price of clothes which rose strongly this month," said Grant Fitzner, chief economist at the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Annual inflation eased for a second month in a row in the U.K., teeing up a new cut to interest rates as policymakers grow increasingly worried about the economic hit from U.S. President Trump’s changeable tariff policy, The Wall Street Journal reported. The consumer-price index rose 2.6% in March from a year earlier, slowing from an annual rate of inflation of 2.8% in February, the U.K.’s Office for National Statistics said Wednesday. Inflation came in a little lower than economists had expected, according to a consensus of estimates compiled by The Wall Street Journal.

Ralph & Russo is teetering on the brink of insolvency for a second time as the haute couture fashion house struggles to stay relevant under new ownership, The Times reported. The luxury brand originally founded by Tamara Ralph and Michael Russo in 2010 has filed for protection from creditors three years after it was rescued out of bankruptcy by American investors.

Official figures Friday showed that the British economy, the world’s sixth-largest, enjoyed a growth spurt in February, the month before U.S. President Donald Trump started to roll out tariffs on imported goods, the Associated Press reported. The Office for National Statistics found that the British economy grew by 0.5% in February, ahead of market expectations for a more modest increase of 0.2%. It also revised up January’s figure to no change from the previous estimate of a 0.1% decline. Were these more normal times, hopes for the year ahead would be high.

The deputy leader of Lancashire County Council has defended the authority’s debt levels after Nigel Farage claimed it was on the brink of “bankruptcy,” the Lancashire Post reported. Alan Vincent said the borrowed money was being used to fund key projects and assets that benefit residents – and insisted County Hall’s finances were sound. The Reform UK leader made the allegation during a campaign visit to West Lancashire on Wednesday, ahead of next month’s local elections. He said that it was costing the county council £135,000 a day in interest to service its borrowing needs.

A GP practice manager who failed to pay more than £75,000 into the pension funds of staff at her surgery now faces seven years of bankruptcy restrictions, The (U.K.) Insolvency Service reported. Sonia Simkins, 54, of Foxglove Way, Dudley, ran Hawes Lane Surgery in Rowley Regis as a sole trader.