The latest report from the Office for National Statistics showed UK economic activity remained subdued at the start of the year, continuing the pattern seen over recent months.

In the three months to January, GDP rose 0.2%, a tenth below forecasts but higher than the 0.1% recorded in December and an improvement on the flat reading in the three months to November. On the month, output was unchanged, missing expectations for a 0.2% rise and slowing from the 0.1% gain previously.

Over the three-month period, services output climbed 0.2% versus the flat reading in the three months to December but a tenth below forecasts. Production increased 1.3%, up from 1.2% previously. Partially offsetting these gains was construction, which fell 2.0% over the period following a 0.9% decline in December, extending its recent downward trend. (LiveSquawk – Continue Reading)

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization intercepted an Iranian missile that entered Turkish airspace on Friday, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.

“A ballistic munition launched from Iran and entering Turkish airspace was neutralized by NATO air and missile defence assets deployed in the Eastern Mediterranean,” the ministry said, without disclosing the location of the incident. (Bloomberg – Continue Reading)

The war in Iran is tearing through the Pentagon’s budget at nearly $1 billion a day, but lawmakers are in no rush to approve more money for the Trump administration’s expanding Middle East conflict.

Top Republicans say the White House hasn’t made the case that it’s facing any financial difficulties with the war, so don’t feel pressure to boost the Pentagon’s $1 trillion budget. And Democrats are unlikely to support the plan at all, which would make securing the votes to pass a supplemental package an uphill climb.

That leaves the White House with a difficult task, particularly in a fraught midterm election year. Administration officials will have to spend significant time and political capital to push through a hugely expensive supplemental spending bill — for a war that’s largely unpopular with the American people — even as the administration tries to burnish its affordability bona fides. And the sluggish timetable means any extra Iran war money likely runs into the president’s plans to supersize the defence budget next year. (POLITICO – Continue Reading)

Long-held expectations the European Central Bank will keep its deposit rate steady through the end of this year remain intact among economists polled by Reuters, despite rising inflation threats from war ​in the Middle East.

Global oil prices surged as much as around 70% after the U.S.-Israel war on Iran ‌began on the last day of February, putting the euro zone's steady inflation outlook on notice and reviving memories of the cost-of-living crisis during the pandemic. (Reuters – Continue Reading)