U.K. economic growth continued to slow in the third quarter amid uncertainty about the government’s coming budget and the impact of a cyberattack on a major carmaker, the Wall Street Journal reported. The country’s gross domestic product, a measure of the goods and services produced across the economy, rose 0.1% in the three months through September from the previous quarter, the Office for National Statistics said. This compares with 0.3% growth in the second quarter. On an annualized basis, growth was 0.3% against 1.1% in the second quarter.

The U.K. has long been torn between two mutually exclusive desires: Voters want European levels of welfare with American levels of taxation, the Wall Street Journal reported. By accident or design, that debate is slowly being resolved in the direction of higher taxes, as Britain’s Labour government prepares its second major tax increase in as many years. The U.K. is confronting an issue facing growing numbers of rich nations: How to pay for rising government spending without taking on ever more debt and spooking financial markets. In the coming weeks, U.K.

Andrew Bailey has claimed that money-printing by the Bank of England has saved the Government as much as £125 billion, the Telegraph reported. The Bank’s Governor said new analysis showed the policy of creating money to buy bonds during crises aided the public finances over the past 15 years by pushing down borrowing costs. Between 2009 and 2022 the Bank bought bonds totalling £895bn under a policy known as quantitative easing (QE), which aimed to relieve pressure on debt markets. “The fiscal savings from lower government debt issuance costs as a result of QE ...

According to the UK’s insolvency and restructuring trade body R3, 4,709 new businesses were launched in Yorkshire and the Humber during October, representing a 5.6 per cent decrease on September’s total of 4,989, the Yorkshire Post reported. The fall in new businesses, based on an analysis of data from Creditsafe, was among the steepest in the UK and highlights a wider trend of decreasing business start-up activity across every UK region, according to R3.

Bramble Energy, a UK-based manufacturer of electrolysers and fuel cells based on printed circuit board (PCB) technology, has filed a notice of intent to appoint an insolvency administrator, according to one of its largest investors. Hydrogen Capital Growth, which holds a 12.5% stake in Bramble, said in a statement that the UK manufacturer had been seeking new financing from third-party investors but it had “recently become tapparents” that the fundraising had been unsuccessful. Without this funding, “the company is unable to operate viably,” HydrogenInsight.com reported.

The Bank of England has dropped demands for strict rules governing cryptocurrencies following pressure from Donald Trump’s administration to soften its stance, the Telegraph reported. Threadneedle Street unveiled proposals on Monday aimed at helping the UK to grab a slice of the $300bn (£230bn) market. While officials confirmed plans to cap the amount of so-called stablecoins that people can own at £20,000 for individuals and £10m for businesses, it said retailers and cryptocurrency exchanges would be exempt from the “temporary” limits.

The Bank of England kept borrowing costs on hold on Thursday, but a narrow vote and signs that Governor Andrew Bailey might soon join those seeking a rate cut increases the chances of a December move after the government's budget later this month, Reuters reported. Mindful of Britain's still-high headline inflation rate, the nine-strong Monetary Policy Committee voted 5-4 to keep the central bank's benchmark Bank Rate at 4.0%, the BoE said. The MPC saw a bigger risk of weaker demand in the economy while the chance of inflation getting stuck too high had diminished, the central bank said.

Britain will roll out its stablecoin regulatory framework "just as quickly as the U.S.," a senior Bank of England official said Wednesday, rebuffing industry concerns that the UK is falling behind in the global race to regulate the assets, Decrypt.com reported. At the SALT conference in London, BoE Deputy Governor Sarah Breeden said the bank remains committed to matching the U.S.'s pace, where President Trump signed stablecoin framework the GENIUS Act into law in July, which has triggered momentum for the assets’ adoption.

The chief executive of Lloyds Bank has said an £11bn car finance compensation scheme risks putting foreign investors off Britain, the Telegraph reported. Charlie Nunn said that the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) planned redress scheme for drivers who claim they were mis-sold car loans risked becoming an “investability issue” for Britain. Mr Nunn said the “scheme as it’s currently proposed” would give a “windfall ... that isn’t linked to harm and wouldn’t be fully proportionate”.