Reeves eyes Gulf trade pact as UK government’s ‘next deal’ after EU summit
Rachel Reeves said the UK government is closing in on a trade pact with six Gulf nations, including Qatar and Saudi Arabia, as its next major deal.
The chancellor told the BBC the agreement would be the government’s “next deal” as it looks to boost trade ties following Brexit.
Reeves suggested economic growth would be strengthened through recent trade deals with the United States, the EU and India, all inked within a fortnight.
Britain is in a better place than any other country in the world in terms of deals with those countries.
The first deal and the best deal so far with the US, we’ve got the best deal with the EU for any country outside the EU, and we’ve got the best trade agreement with India.
The chancellor also said the UK was “not looking to have trade negotiations with China”.
In early April, foreign secretary David Lammy said Labour was continuing discussions with the Gulf over a trade deal, which were started by the previous Conservative government.
Reeves’ comments come after a new trade deal with Brussels was struck on Monday.
The Prime Minister hailed his deal, set out at a summit in London, as a “win-win” for both parties, which would be the start of a “new era” in the UK-EU relationship.
The wide-ranging deal will allow more British travellers to use passport e-gates when going on holiday to Europe, while farmers will get swifter, easier access to trade on the continent as a result of an agreement on animal and plant product standards.
A “youth experience scheme” allowing young Britons to study and live in Europe, and a new security and defence partnership were also agreed.
But the deal has been met with criticism after the UK agreed to grant European fishing trawlers a further 12 years’ access to British waters.
Sir Keir Starmer hailed a “mood change” in the relationship with the bloc, saying: “The EU and the UK wanting to work together, all of us prepared to say let yesterday be yesterday, we are looking forward to tomorrow.
We are not going to litigate old arguments, we are going to go forward in the spirit of what we do together, we do better.
Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch said, however:
This deal will mean Britain becoming a rule-taker, accepting dynamic alignment, giving up fishing rights and paying new money to the EU.
Nobody has lost more than the fishermen.
Key events
Bank of England’s Pill says pace of rate cuts ‘too rapid’
Bank of England Chief Economist Huw Pill said the quarterly pace of interest rate cuts had been “too rapid” given the inflation outlook, but added that the path for interest rates remained “downward”.
The central bank lowered interest rates by a quarter point to 4.25% to cushion the UK economy against the impact of rising economic uncertainty.
Giving a speech entitled The courage not to act at a briefing hosted by Barclays, he said he thought the pace of rate cuts since mid-2024 had been “too rapid given the balance of risks to price stability we face”.
This is in line with his preference for “cautious and gradual” cuts in Bank Rate expressed over the past 12 months, he said.
I would therefore characterise my dissenting vote [in May] as favouring a ‘skip’ in the quarterly pattern of Bank Rate cuts intended to slow the pace at which monetary restriction is withdrawn. It should not be seen as favouring a halt to (still less a reversal of) that withdrawal of restriction.
I believe that the underlying disinflation process remains intact and – conditional, as always, on the information and analysis available today – that the prospective path of Bank Rate from here is downward.
Shell faces protests calling for clean-up in Niger Delta
Shell is holding its annual meeting today, and faces protests from activists calling for a full clean-up of the damage caused in the Niger Delta.
Activists from Amnesty International UK, Fossil Free London, and the Justice 4 Nigeria coalition are staging a protest outside Shell’s global headquarters, just hours before the oil giant holds its AGM at a hotel in Heathrow where protests are barred by a court injunction. The meeting is due to start at 10am.
The campaigners say:
For nearly 70 years Shell’s oil spills and leaks – arising from poorly maintained pipelines and wells and inadequate clean-up efforts – have devastated the health and livelihoods of many of the 30 million people living in the Niger Delta. The pollution has contaminated water sources, killed fish and crops, destroyed mangrove forests, and caused serious health issues, including respiratory illnesses, increased rates of miscarriage and infant mortality.
According to research, babies born to women who lived near oil spills before pregnancy are twice as likely to die in their first month than elsewhere in the country.
Despite making billions in profits, Shell has consistently failed to adequately clean up or compensate affected communities. From just one area – Ogoniland – the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People estimates Shell earned $30bn over 30 years, while ruining local lives and livelihoods.
Peter Frankental, Amnesty International UK’s business and human rights director, added:
Despite numerous court rulings ordering Shell to clean up and compensate the people it has harmed, the company continues to drag its feet. Shell has made huge profits at the expense of the Niger Delta’s people without taking any responsibility, it must now be held accountable.
For decades communities have demanded justice and the right to live in a safe, healthy environment. Shell has created a living hell in the Niger Delta – now it must clean up and pay up.
Dominic Twomey from Amnesty International said on X:
On the day of oil company Shell’s AGM 2025, activists join together outside Shell’s HQ in London to call for a full clean up of the environmental damage caused in the Niger Delta. pic.twitter.com/idjub86T79
— Dominic Twomey (@Dom_Twomey) May 20, 2025
Shell has been contacted for comment.
More on Britain’s biggest bakery chain Greggs, whose trading has improved in recent weeks. The share price jumped by 7%.
John Moore, senior investment manager at RBC Brewin Dolphin, said:
Greggs has been going through a tougher period recently, with the shares down around -30% in the year to date. Recent price increases of around 2% suggest the company is trying to right-size in the aftermath of the National Insurance increases, recalibrating its roll out and growth ambitions.
There are tentative signs that Greggs is making progress in today’s update, with sales continuing to rise, the shop portfolio growing, and expectations for the year unchanged. Slowing growth will still be a concern, as well as the wider question about whether we have reached ‘peak Greggs’ in the UK. Nevertheless, the baker is a resilient and innovative business that has proven its ability to bounce back from tricky times.
Richard Hunter, head of markets at the trading platform interactive investor, said Vodafone is “beginning to ring the changes”.
Shares in the FTSE 100 company rose by less than 1%, despite a €4bn share buyback.
Turning around a super tanker is never an easy task, especially when the company is in the midst of a highly competitive arena, but there are some signs that Vodafone is beginning to ring the changes.
The group had quite simply been fighting fires on too many fronts while dealing with an increasingly onerous debt burden, leading to the need for a significant transformation. What should now emerge from the turnaround is a smaller and less geographically diverse, but more focused operation…
One particular area of promise is the Africa operation, which now accounts for 20% of group income. Service revenue grew by 11.3% over the year, with the group well positioned to benefit further from some potentially explosive growth in the region, particularly given the more widespread availability and use of the services which the industry provides, and of which Vodafone is an established player.
Turning to the UK and Germany, he said:
The UK business is another region which the group is aiming to strengthen, and its planned mega-merger with Three UK should complete imminently. The merger should truly change the domestic landscape, while also providing new revenue opportunities at scale as well as cost synergy savings of around £700 million per year on completion. In the meantime, the unit accounts for 19% of group income and saw total revenue growth of 1.9% for the period.
The most obvious thorn in the group’s size remains the German operation, which is the group’s largest and accounts for 35% of overall service revenue, which declined by 5% for the year. The unit is still suffering from customer losses which were largely attributable to enforced price increases last year, competitive activity elsewhere and the lingering effects of the change to German TV law which resulted in a recontracting of customers, where the previous number of 8.5 million has been reduced to 4.2 million households.
More broadly, the telecoms sector is one which is of course based on reliability, but equally importantly on price, where there remains ferocious competition. Recent years have also required huge investment as the industry moves on, such as being part of the new 5G network, with the benefit of any payback not being felt for any number of years. This becomes especially pertinent when margin protection tends to come with sheer volumes as opposed to the ability to raise prices indiscriminately.
Reeves eyes Gulf trade pact as UK government’s ‘next deal’ after EU summit
Rachel Reeves said the UK government is closing in on a trade pact with six Gulf nations, including Qatar and Saudi Arabia, as its next major deal.
The chancellor told the BBC the agreement would be the government’s “next deal” as it looks to boost trade ties following Brexit.
Reeves suggested economic growth would be strengthened through recent trade deals with the United States, the EU and India, all inked within a fortnight.
Britain is in a better place than any other country in the world in terms of deals with those countries.
The first deal and the best deal so far with the US, we’ve got the best deal with the EU for any country outside the EU, and we’ve got the best trade agreement with India.
The chancellor also said the UK was “not looking to have trade negotiations with China”.
In early April, foreign secretary David Lammy said Labour was continuing discussions with the Gulf over a trade deal, which were started by the previous Conservative government.
Reeves’ comments come after a new trade deal with Brussels was struck on Monday.
The Prime Minister hailed his deal, set out at a summit in London, as a “win-win” for both parties, which would be the start of a “new era” in the UK-EU relationship.
The wide-ranging deal will allow more British travellers to use passport e-gates when going on holiday to Europe, while farmers will get swifter, easier access to trade on the continent as a result of an agreement on animal and plant product standards.
A “youth experience scheme” allowing young Britons to study and live in Europe, and a new security and defence partnership were also agreed.
But the deal has been met with criticism after the UK agreed to grant European fishing trawlers a further 12 years’ access to British waters.
Sir Keir Starmer hailed a “mood change” in the relationship with the bloc, saying: “The EU and the UK wanting to work together, all of us prepared to say let yesterday be yesterday, we are looking forward to tomorrow.
We are not going to litigate old arguments, we are going to go forward in the spirit of what we do together, we do better.
Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch said, however:
This deal will mean Britain becoming a rule-taker, accepting dynamic alignment, giving up fishing rights and paying new money to the EU.
Nobody has lost more than the fishermen.
Vodafone slumps to loss after writedowns
Vodafone has fallen into the red after taking a €4.5bn hit from writedowns on its businesses in Germany and Romania, but said it expected to return to top-line growth in Germany, its biggest market.
The mobile phone giant made a pre-tax loss of €1.5bn in the year to 31 March, against a profit of €1.6bn the previous year. It took impairment charges of €4.4bn on its struggling German division and €165m on its Romanian business. Revenues rose by 2% to €37.5bn.
Chief executive Margherita Della Valle was upbeat, though.
We have reshaped Europe, we are seeing the positive impact of our drive for customer satisfaction in all our markets – most noticeably in the UK and Germany – and we have delivered strong operational improvements across the business. Clearly there is much more to do, but this period of transition has repositioned Vodafone for multi-year growth.
Looking ahead, we expect to see broad-based momentum across Europe and Africa, and for Germany to return to top-line growth during this year. This is reflected in our guidance for profit and cash flow growth for the year ahead.
Introduction: China and Australia cut interest rates; Greggs sales improve as Mac and Cheese goes viral
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.
China’s and Australia’s central banks have both cut interest rates to stimulate their economies and cushion the impact of US trade tariffs.
China cut its benchmark lending rates for the first time since October, following Beijing’s sweeping monetary easing measures. The People’s Bank of China reduced the one-year loan prime rate by 10 basis points to 3.0%, and the five-year loan prime rate was cut by the same amount to 3.5%.
The lending rate cut was announced just after five of China‘s biggest state-owned banks trimmed their deposit interest rates. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Bank of China reduced their deposit rates by 5-25bps.
Global investment banks have upped their forecasts for China’s economic growth this year, after Beijing and Washington agreed to a 90-day pause on tariffs, despite ongoing uncertainty around the trade negotiations.
China’s president Xi Jinping called for continuous efforts to build a stronger manufacturing industry, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Xi stressed the need for the country to be self-reliant and to master key technologies, as he visited a bearings manufacturer in China’s central Henan province.
Marco Sun, chief financial market analyst at MUFG Bank, said the rate cuts were aimed at boosting credit lending and stimulating consumption.
The central bank is likely to switch to a wait-and-see approach in coming months unless external geopolitical risks deteriorate enough to extinguish hopes that the economy can stabilise.
The Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges rose by 0.4% and 0.8%, while the Australian stock market advanced by 0.6% and Japan’s Nikkei was little changed.
The Reserve Bank of Australia cut its cash rate by 25bps to a two-year low of 3.85% at its May meeting, the first rate cut since January. The Australian dollar fell after the decision was announced. The central bank said:
Inflation is in the target band and upside risks appear to have diminished as international developments are expected to weigh on the economy.
The board assesses that this move will make monetary policy somewhat less restrictive. It nevertheless remains cautious about the outlook.
Britain’s biggest bakery chain Greggs said sales growth picked up in the past five months, as its newly launched Mac and Cheese went viral on TikTok.
The company, famous for its sausage rolls and vegan alternatives, said like-for-like sales (at outlets open at least a year) rose by 2.9% in the first 20 weeks of 2025. In the first nine weeks sales had disappointed with a 1.9% rise, its worst performance since the pandemic, for which it blamed bad weather and a tough macroeconomic backdrop.
After an initial trial last year, its made-to-order range, including chicken burgers, wraps and fish finger sandwiches is now sold in more than 300 shops across the country.
Greggs opened 66 new shops, which means it now has 2,638 outlets, as it aims to launch up to 150 over the year.
The Agenda
