Liz Truss is to present plans to tackle the squeeze on Britain’s gas supplies following obstruction from Russia. Truss is expected to announce that the UK’s energy bills will be frozen at roughly £2,500 a year for the next 2 years (until 2024) as part of her support package.
Charities and thinktanks, including the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said that the government’s plans to cap energy bills are “poorly targeted” and “fail to protect low-income families” but Truss says the government will “take action immediately” to aid “people and businesses with bills”, and also “take decisive action to tackle the root cause” of the energy supply crisis.
Today is a big data day for eurozone market watchers as the European Central Bank is to announce its interest rate decision at 1:15 this afternoon. The ECB is expected to raise its interest rates by 75 bps to 1.25%. If they do, this will raise eurozone borrowing prices to the highest they have been in 11 years.
Lots of key data from the US today with Initial Jobless Claims being announced at lunchtime. In the last data, markets saw the number of Americans filing new unemployment benefit claims fall from a downwardly revised 237k, to 232k. Today, markets are expecting those numbers to decrease gently by 2k to 230k.
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