Britain's health minister on Sunday declined to rule out the chance of further COVID-19 restrictions before Christmas, saying the spread of the Omicron variant was a very fast moving situation, Reuters reported. Britain has reported a surge in Omicron cases, which government advisers said could be just the tip of the iceberg. On Saturday, London's mayor declared a "major incident" to help the city's hospitals cope.

Inflation in Britain rose 5.1 percent last month, the highest annual rate in more than a decade, driven mainly by jumps in the cost of gasoline and clothing, the New York Times reported. The figure is a significant increase from October’s 4.2 percent rate, and shows that prices are rising faster than the Bank of England’s most recent forecast, which predicted inflation would rise to about 5 percent next spring. The central bank tries to keep inflation at about 2 percent.

Major British airlines on Monday called on the government to remove testing rules for vaccinated passengers and provide economic support for the battered sector, as new travel rules were imposed to fight off the Omicron coronavirus variant, Reuters reported. Britain currently requires all inbound travellers to take a pre-departure COVID-19 test and another test on arrival in England, despite their vaccination status, dealing a blow to airlines trying to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The International Monetary Fund urged the Bank of England on Tuesday to avoid an "inaction bias" when it comes to raising interest rates as it forecast British inflation would hit a 30-year high of around 5.5% next year, Reuters reported. The BoE has said rates will need to rise to ensure that consumer price inflation - currently 4.2% - returns to its 2% target in the next couple of years.

Britain will remove all 11 countries from its COVID-19 travel red list on Wednesday, Health Secretary Sajid Javid told parliament, Reuters reported. "Now that there is community transmission of Omicron in the UK and Omicron has spread so widely across the world, the travel red list is now less effective in slowing the incursion of Omicron from abroad," he said.

Virgin Atlantic has received 400 million pounds ($530 million) of new funding from its shareholders to help the airline ride out the coronavirus pandemic, the Associated Press reported. In a statement Monday, the company said its shareholders, Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, will provide the money in line with their stakes. Virgin Group owns 51% of the airline, while Delta owns the rest. “Our story has been well documented during the pandemic,” Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss said.

U.K. households, already bracing for their energy bills to rise by “several hundred pounds,” will see a further jump following the collapse of Bulb Energy Ltd. and other suppliers, the regulator said, Bloomberg News reported. The U.K.’s energy crisis has led to the collapse of more than 24 suppliers and the first forced nationalization since 2008. That will cost the average household an extra 85 pounds ($112) next year. Ofgem said the collapse of Bulb Energy Ltd.

The U.K.’s biggest business lobby cut its forecasts for growth this year and next as it warned rising costs and shortages are hampering the nation’s recovery, Bloomberg News reported. The Confederation of British Industry said Monday it now expects an expansion of 6.9% in 2021 and 5.1% in 2022, down from 8.2% and 6.1% previously. It expects U.K. business investment to lag behind other advanced economies, and sees it remaining 3% below its pre-Covid level by the end of 2023. The emergence of the omicron variant poses a further downside risk, it said.

The U.K. Treasury has appointed David Miles, a former Morgan Stanley economist and Bank of England rate-setter, to the government’s independent budget watchdog, Bloomberg News reported. Miles, who served on the BOE’s monetary policy committee from 2009 to 2015, will take over from Charles Bean, whose five-year term ends on Jan. 1. The OBR draws up the economic forecasts as well as borrowing and debt projections for the budget. The independent body was set up in 2010 to stop the Treasury fiddling the figures for political purpose.

The U.K.’s energy regulator said it may impose stricter capital requirements for gas and power suppliers after almost two dozen companies collapsed since August in the wake of soaring prices, Bloomberg News reported. The surge in wholesale rates to levels almost four times higher than usual for this time of year has wreaked havoc on the energy retail sector. Many of those going out of business were partially or totally unhedged, leaving them vulnerable when prices increased dramatically.