The Bank of England is inviting staff to volunteer for layoffs as its finances come under increasing pressure. We've also previously revealed that it is moving out of its Moorgate office and shelving investments amid the budget strain. Read our latest exclusive👇 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Trio of Bank of England exclusives: 1) BOE looks to have stablecoin rules in place by end of 2026 to keep pace with US bit.ly/4hq4gVY 2) BOE begins industry outreach over private credit stress tests bit.ly/47mMpuw 3) BOE plans to move out of its Moorgate office where the PRA is house bit.ly/4oyoH5k

BOE Governor Bailey has just confirmed our scoop from this morning that the central bank will step back from creating a digital pound if commercial banks press ahead enough with payment innovations. Read our story 👇 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

This is our inside look at what went so wrong at the ONS. We spoke to over 20 insiders who peeled back the curtain, revealing deep-seated problems from accusations of bullying to chaos at the top of stats body. Lots of new stuff in there. Read here 👇 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

As @gavinfreeguard.bsky.social says, this is big news The ONS has started to take action to get a grip on data problems But there are long-standing concerns about the pipeline of stats leaders, so who will fill the vacancy? From a few weeks ago: www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/offi...

Big news 👇 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

ONS confirms our exclusive story that Ian Diamond has resigned as head of the national statistics body! It came after mounting pressures over the ONS's handling of a collapse in response rates to key household surveys. It had made its unemployment and employment figures useless

Exclusive from us on a shake-up at the top of the ONS: - The ONS's Deputy National Statistician is leaving after string of high-profile problems with key economics data - He was official that BOE's Huw Pill sent his infamous letter to last year Read here 👇 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Great report card from Labour's first months in power from @philaldrick.bsky.social One of Starmer's pledges even gets a 1/10 score 😬 www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Amazing tale from @tomreesjournalist.bsky.social and @irinaanghel.bsky.social The ONS is struggling to collect critical labour market survey data because people aren't answering the door after checking their video doorbells www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Our latest exclusive on the crisis at the UK statistics agency 👇 - Regulators are doing a sweeping examination of the ONS's surveys to see if more are affected by a plunge in responses - Problems found with 2 more surveys, inc. one that helps produce GDP estimates www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Here is the real world consequence for Reeves of the lack of growth plan so far: The chancellor would be left with a £30 billion black hole if her plans were based on up-to-date City forecasts, Bloomberg calculations show Via @tomreesjournalist.bsky.social www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Our exclusive story this afternoon reveals how exposed Reeves is to the rapidly deteriorating growth picture. She would face a £30 billion hole in her budget plans if the OBR downgraded its forecasts to be in line with private sector forecasters. Read here 👇 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

At risk of being too in the weeds on inflation, the fall may be partially down to a quirk on air fares The ONS took return leg prices on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, artificially bringing down prices and services inf as travelers don't like to fly on those days www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

The UK has seen gilt yields rise sharply in early 2025 no doubt but they don't look quite as horrific when you look at it like this. Gloomy UK narrative looks overdone - 2-yr yield in line with rest of Europe/US - 10-yr yield 5bps above average move - 30-yr yield a bit worse, 7bps above average

Great explainer from @tomreesjournalist.bsky.social on why recent UK market turmoil isn’t quite another Liz Truss moment - but is still causing headaches for Chancellor Rachel Reeves www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Really great (and very accessible!) explainer by @tomreesjournalist.bsky.social on what’s been going on in UK markets, including why it’s not as bad as the Truss disaster but still very worrying for Reeves >>> www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Pretty dismal numbers to end the year on: - No growth in Q3 even before budget hysteria really ramped up - GDP per head still below pre-pandemic levels - Saving ratio remains elevated at over 10%, suggests consumer caution lingering - No growth in real disposable incomes per head

Latest exclusive from us on the ONS data crisis: - a survey that helps produce the GDP data has seen a collapse in responses similar to those that hit the labour market figures. - ONS forced to take action after drop in responses to as low as 22% Read here 👇 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

The PMIs can overreact to political news but other labour market surveys have also shown demand for workers sinking post budget. The silver lining was the PMI suggested this was more about cutting working hours and not replacing leavers than redundancies

Bad UK economic stats are new policy risk. The ONS failures on jobs and migration, the Bank of England’s “shocking” data handling. OBR errors. At a time when Reeves is trying a fiscal experiment, it’s a risk www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Slightly complicated signals on the NI hike impact from the BOE's CFO survey: -Over half of firms plan to raise prices, far fewer will curb wages instead. Clearly that's bad for the BOE -But also 54% of businesses expect to reduce employment, which in the longer term could reduce wage pressures

National Audit Office damns the Tory record on justice and prisons Prison rebuilding programme will cost £4b more than planned, double the original estimate, and run 5 years late Shortage of 12,000 prison places by end 2027 Via @tomreesjournalist.bsky.social www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Great story this: Culture of fear causes crisis at the ONS

A culture of fear at the ONS is partly to blame for the collapse in quality of UK jobs data. Staff fear for their "psychological safety”, have "anxiety" & believe they must relay "positive messaging/" Managers should raise "candour" w/ @tomreesjournalist.bsky.social www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Me and @philaldrick.bsky.social have published our exclusive probing what has gone wrong at the ONS. After speaking to lots of people and trawling docs, we found: - A culture of fear stopped officials raising issues with the labor market data - Insiders lament a number of missed opportunities. 1/2

What news would have to break to stop the BBC splashing on Greg Wallace

ONS has confirmed our report from last month this morning. BOE will be setting policy with one hand tied behind its back for the foreseeable future given these delays to the new labor market survey. Perhaps why BOE ratesetters have been turning up the heat on the ONS is recent days

Good to see FT catching up with @tomreesjournalist.bsky.social piece two weeks ago on the UK's faulty jobs data not being replaced with a working version until 2027. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Jan Vlieghe's point earlier this week was really interesting that Bailey allowed blame to be pinned on the central bank by the media/TSC etc. Vlieghe said something to the effect of 'a captain shouldn't be judged on being blown off course but whether they reach their final destination'

This creates a big policy dilemma for BOE. If most of the impact goes through employment, that points to quicker rate cuts. But if it's largely passed on in prices, that will hold up reductions. One reason why they are unlikely to shift course any time soon