Thanks for joining me. The Government has borrowed £9.2bn less than official forecasts so far this financial year, giving Jeremy Hunt potential room for tax cuts in his Budget next month.
The public finances enjoyed a record surplus in January of £16.7bn, amid higher tax receipts.
5 things to start your day
1) Britain must work with EU to halt onslaught of Chinese EVs, warns Renault | Car makers on the Continent struggle with slowing demand and cheaper competition
2) Why your Easter egg will be smaller and more expensive this year | Poor cocoa harvests in West Africa threaten to leave consumers with a bitter taste
3) ‘Putin will spark a third world war if Russia claims victory in Ukraine’ | Ukrainian steel magnate Yuriy Ryzhenkov warns of global fallout from the Kremlin’s war
4) Net zero will be far more expensive than public thinks, Lords warned | Former chief IMF economist says governments need to borrow more to fund transition
5) Currys’ largest shareholder warns of UK stock market decline | Investors devalue listings by shifting focus away from Britain to the US, says Redwheel
What happened overnight
Hong Kong and Shanghai stocks jumped after Beijing’s latest measures to boost the stuttering economy but declines on Wall Street weighed on other Asian markets.
China’s central bank rate cut on Tuesday is among measures intended to rally dwindling growth as the world’s second-largest economy battles a prolonged property-sector crisis and a global slowdown.
The People’s Bank of China said it was lowering the five-year loan prime rate, used to price mortgages, from 4.2 to 3.95 percent – the largest reduction since the key rate was revamped in 2019.
Hong Kong climbed 3pc in the morning session while Shanghai was up 2.3pc.
Tokyo stocks closed lower, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 index slipping 0.3pc, or 101.45 points, to 38,262.16, while the broader Topix index ended down 0.2pc, or 5.00 points, to 2,627.30.
Sydney, Seoul, Taipei, Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur were all down.
In Wall Street, the S&P 500 fell 0.6pc to 4,975.51. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 leading American companies fell 0.2pc, to 38,563.80. The Nasdaq Composite index fell 0.9pc, to 15,630.78.
The yield on the all-important benchmark 10-year Treasury bonds slipped to 4.27pc from 4.28pc late on Friday.
