‘He’s one of the best’: the economist shaping Rachel Reeves’s growth plans

The economist John Van Reenen lacks the public status of Gordon Brown’s “two Eds” – Balls and Miliband – who ranged across Whitehall in New Labour’s first term, enforcing the Treasury’s will. But ask today’s Labour apparatchiks about Rachel Reeves’s approach to growth, which she will set out in a speech later this month, and they often point to the chair of her council of economic advisers.Currently on leave from the London School of Economics (LSE), where he ran the Centre for Economic Performance, Van Reenen has spent his professional lifetime probing the weak spots of the UK economy.Now he is based in an office next to Reeves’s at the Treasury, with his three fellow advisers. One Labour source says they struggle to remember a consequential meeting at which Van Reenen has not been present

China’s economy hits 5% growth target but rate among slowest in decades

China’s economy grew by 5% in 2024, in line with government targets but at the slowest rate since 1990 outside the Covid pandemic, according to official data.Growth accelerated through the year, with an expansion of 5.4% in the final quarter, up from 4.6% in the third quarter, according to Beijing’s National Bureau of Statistics.The bureau reported “steady progress amid stability” but pointed to a “complicated and severe environment with increasing external pressures and internal difficulties”

Food stores in Great Britain have worst Christmas since 2013

Retailers in Great Britain experienced a surprise fall in sales volumes last month, as supermarkets and other food stores had their worst Christmas since 2013, according to official figures.The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said sales volumes fell 0.3% month on month in December, as the crucial retailing “golden quarter” of trading for the sector proved to be weak this year. Economists had expected sales to grow 0.4%

Ofcom enforces ban on ‘nasty surprise’ mid-contract telecoms price rises

Millions of consumers will be protected from “nasty surprises” from Friday as new rules take effect that mean telecoms firms must tell people upfront – in “pounds and pence” – about any future price rises.It means mobile phone, broadband and pay-TV companies are now banned from imposing mid-contract price increases linked to unknown future rates of inflation.The changes come 18 months after a Guardian investigation exposed “greedflation” in the telecoms sector, with millions of people facing mid-contract rises in monthly payments of up to 17.3%.Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, is forcing firms to set out upfront, in clear monetary terms, details of any expected rises throughout the duration of their deals

Memo for Rachel Reeves: regulators cannot produce growth out of thin air | Nils Pratley

“Every regulator, no matter what sector, has a part to play by tearing down the regulatory barriers that hold back growth,” said Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, after summoning the overseers of the railways, aviation, water and energy industries and more for a pow-wow at No 11. You’d almost think the UK would be transformed into a high-growth paradise if only these regulatory plodders would allow companies to embrace risk-taking.The reality, sadly, is more nuanced. First, most of these regulators – the likes of the Competition and Markets Authority, Ofcom, Ofwat, Ofgem, the Environment Agency and the Civil Aviation Authority – have had a secondary “growth duty” since 2017. The political urging to take the obligation more seriously may be louder these days, but the duties themselves have not changed