United Kingdom

Adult Care Costs 'Could Bankrupt Council'

A councillor has said the U.K. government needs to urgently help their authority with adult care costs, to avoid bankruptcy, BBC.com reported. Despite welcoming the government's plan for reform, Somerset councillor Sarah Wakefield, lead member for Adults Services, Housing and Homelessness, said she is concerned funding will take too long to arrive. The Liberal Democrat-led Somerset Council spends 70-80% of its whole budget on social care and education.
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U.K. Retail Sales Decline on Disappointing Christmas Shopping

Retailers in the U.K. recorded a dispiriting December, with not even the Christmas and Black Friday shopping periods saving them from declining sales, the Wall Street Journal reported. U.K. retail sales volumes were 0.3% lower in December than in the prior month, the Office for National Statistics said Friday. The decline was driven by a poor month for food sales, which sank to their lowest level since 2013, with supermarkets particularly affected, according to ONS senior statistician Hannah Finselbach.
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U.K.’s Buy-Now Pay-Later Market Booms Ahead of Crunch Year

Britons are using buy-now, pay-later like never before to fund their lifestyles, Bloomberg News reported. This model, allowing customers to spread out payments without interest or credit checks, has become the darling of retailers and is drawing a growing menagerie of fintech companies. That’s increasing the competition and risks squeezing industry margins, just as the government gets ready to regulate the sector. Activity rose nearly a fifth to about $27 billion last year, putting it at 7.7% of the UK’s total e-commerce market, according to GlobalData Plc.
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U.K. Economy Returns to Growth, But Faces Uncertain Outlook

The U.K. economy returned to growth in November, but that is unlikely to mark the start of a recovery that will be strong enough to ease concerns about the government’s ability to tame its rising debts, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Office for National Statistics Thursday said gross domestic product was 0.1% higher in November than it was in October, a weaker outcome than the 0.2% rise expected by economists. That marked a modest return to expansion after small declines in output during the two previous months.
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U.K. Inflation Eases in Boost to Rate-Cut Chances

The U.K.’s annual rate of inflation cooled at the end of last year, making it more likely that the Bank of England will continue to lower its key interest rate, the Wall Street Journal reported. Consumer prices were 2.5% higher in December than a year earlier, down from 2.6% in November, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed Wednesday. Economists had expected annual inflation to stay unchanged, according to a poll compiled by The Wall Street Journal.
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