The UK government’s £400 payment to help households with surging energy bills could be about to shake inflation markets and the nation’s stretched finances, according to a Bloomberg News commentary. The Office for National Statistics will announce Wednesday whether the £12 billion ($14 billion) in aid, which will be spread over six months, should be considered an income adjustment or a price adjustment. If the latter, that will ease official inflation figures in the coming months.

British credit card borrowing grew at the fastest pace since 2005 in the 12 months to July, Bank of England data showed on Tuesday, in a potential sign that some households are struggling to make ends meet as the cost of living soars, Reuters reported. Credit card borrowing rose by a net 740 million pounds ($869 million) on the month, down from a 945 million-pound increase in June but 13% higher than the year before, the biggest annual increase since October 2005. The average interest rate on credit card borrowing rose to 21.7% in July, the highest since late 1998, the data showed.

For months, a tsunami of high energy costs has borne down on Europe. On Friday, the first big waves crashed ashore in Britain, with the news that household gas and electricity bills will nearly double in October, the New York Times reported. The announcement, by Britain’s energy regulator, raised the specter of a humanitarian crisis in one of the world’s richest countries: Millions of Britons might not be able to afford to heat or light their homes this winter, unless the government steps in on an enormous scale to cushion them from the vagaries of the market.

This inability to find people to hire has spread across the British economy, in virtually all industries, and the solution chosen by many employers — higher pay — is embedding inflationary pressures deeper into an economy where prices are soaring, the New York Times reported. Last week, Britons learned that the annual rate of inflation reached 10.1 percent in July, the fastest pace since 1982, as energy prices rose and businesses passed higher costs — for supplies but also labor — onto their customers. In some ways it’s a great time to be a worker in the hospitality business.

U.K. inflation is on course to hit 18.6 per cent in January — the highest peak in almost half a century — because of soaring wholesale gas prices, according to a new forecast from Citigroup based on the latest market prices, the Irish Times reported. The investment bank predicted that the retail energy price cap would be raised to £4,567 (€5,386) in January and then £5,816 in April, compared with the current level of £1,971 a year — shifts it said would lead to inflation “entering the stratosphere”.

Cineworld Group Plc, the owner of Regal Cinemas, is preparing to file for bankruptcy within weeks after struggling to rebuild attendance from pandemic lows, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The British cinema company has engaged lawyers from Kirkland & Ellis LLP and consultants from AlixPartners to advise on the bankruptcy process, these people said. Cineworld is expected to file a chapter 11 petition in the U.S. and is considering filing an insolvency proceeding in the U.K., they said.

The Dubai-owned company P&O Ferries will not face any criminal action over its decision to sack nearly 800 British workers without notice, the Insolvency Service has said, the Epoch Times reported. P&O Ferries, which was bought by Dubai-based logistics giant DP World in 2019, sparked outrage on March 17 when it fired 800 seafarers without any prior notice and replaced them with cheaper agency workers, citing £100 million ($132 million) year-on-year loss.

Britain's Financial Conduct Authority said on Friday it had fined Citigroup Global Markets 12.5 million pounds ($15 million) for past failures to properly apply rules aimed at spotting suspicious trading in shares and commodities, Reuters reported. Banks are required to implement rules introduced in 2016 and known as the market abuse regulation (MAR) to monitor for potential insider trading and market manipulation. But until January 2018, the London-based international broker dealer arm of U.S.

An Ebbw Vale haulier business has collapsed due to soaring fuel costs. The winding up of Scott Commercials has resulted in the loss of 10 jobs with insolvency firm Begbies Traynor appointed liquidators, BusinessLive.com reported. Established in 2013 Scott Commercials provided road haulage services to transport operators across the UK. The liquidation is being handled by Bristol-based partner Paul Wood and Cardiff-based partner Huw Powell. They said that recent rises in PAYE, fuel, ad-blue (fuel additive) and tyres had created significant cash flow issues for the business.

The U.K.’s annual rate of inflation moved into double digits in July and is set to rise even higher by the end of the year, heaping greater pressure on stretched household budgets and threatening a lengthy economic contraction, the Wall Street Journal reported. That pickup in inflation has been replicated in other parts of Europe, even as consumer prices have started to slow in the U.S. That is because energy prices have continued to accelerate across Europe as Russia withholds supplies of natural gas, with the continent facing a possible crunch this winter.