Good morning.
People who retired during the pandemic should go back to work to help the struggling economy, the boss of John Lewis has said.
Dame Sharon White urged the government to encourage people, mainly in their 50s, who have stopped working to re-enter the workforce amid fears that labor shortages will continue to push up inflation.
She told the BBC: “Regardless of what has happened since Covid, if the labor market is so tight, if we continue to have far fewer people working, looking for work, you will inevitably have more inflation and more wage inflation.”
The chairman of John Lewis said he had never seen “a combination of some very difficult factors” affecting the economy during his career and said it was crucial that Britain avoided a period of stagnation.
He said the introduction of flexible retirement plans and skills courses for older workers to retrain for different jobs could encourage people to return to work.
5 things to start the day
1) How Britain’s next prime minister could avoid catastrophic energy bills Bank of England expects rising costs to force UK into recession
2) Families cut holiday and shopping spending as inflation crunch hits economy Businesses attack ‘power vacuum’ in government as cost-of-living crisis begins to take its toll
3) Nicola Sturgeon’s ‘catastrophic’ ferry failure prompts Scottish islanders to ration Trust in government ‘shattered’ after shops forced to ration essential items
4) Billionaire media dynasty snaps up news start-up Axios for $525 million The Cox family will spend $25 million expanding the reach of the digital news group that clashed with Donald Trump
5) IBM accuses the startup of stealing secret computer technology. The company alleged that Winsopia posed as a genuine customer to copy the tech giant’s software
What happened during the night
Asian shares were lower this morning as financial markets worried about lingering global cost pressures, with investors focusing this week on US inflation data and the prospect of further aggressive rate hikes Federal Reserve
In early Asian trading, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.2 percent. The index has risen by 0.5% so far this month. US stock futures rose 0.07%.
Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.81%, while Australian shares were flat.
China’s blue-chip CSI300 index was down 0.31% in early trade. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index opened 0.12% lower.
It arrives today
- Corporate: Abrdn, InterContinental Hotels Group, IWG, Just Group, Legal & General, TI Fluid Systems (interim); Bellway (Commercial Update)
- Economy: Non-Farm Productivity (US), Unit Labor Costs (US)