Power to the people | Financial Times

Hello and welcome to the working week.

As you read this, I will have just returned from a high-powered transport meeting deeply relevant to this week’s news agenda.

OK, it’s my youngest son’s birthday party at the local go-kart track. But he and his classmates will have been tearing around the circuit in the venue’s battery-powered four wheelers. Electric cars and smarter energy use are vital for our future, and they will be a focus for discussion at various venues this week.

On Tuesday, the EU will unveil its Net Zero Industry Act, an effort to regain the initiative in clean technology production in Europe. The plan, according to draft proposals seen by the FT, is to enable homegrown green energy businesses to produce 40 per cent of the bloc’s capacity needs in five low carbon technologies — solar, wind, heat pumps, batteries and electrolysers. The EU’s act is an attempt to keep these kinds of companies on its side — see the note about Volkswagen’s results below — and the legislation can be seen as a direct response to the US Inflation Reduction Act, announced last August, which is providing $369bn in tax credits and subsidies for clean energy technologies.

Power, or rather the cost of it, will be a key focus for the UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Budget day speech on Wednesday, alongside defence spending for Ukraine, measures to encourage a return to work and perhaps childcare help. The limit on the price households pay per unit of gas and electricity under the energy price guarantee scheme is scheduled to increase to £3,000 a year from April 1. But reports in recent weeks suggest that the chancellor may keep the limit at its current level of £2,500.

Hunt has had some good fortune with better than expected figures for the economy (see chart below) and public sector borrowing, but the giveaways are expected to be modest — leaving room for headline-grabbing tax breaks closer to the next general election, at least a year away. Click here for news in the build up to Wednesday’s speech as well as coverage on the day.

Elsewhere in British politics, the ballot to choose a new leader for the Scottish National Party, and therefore the new first minister at the Holyrood parliament, opens on Monday. The contest is already producing heated debates between the three candidates, and there’s “a bit of a smell” over SNP finances, upsetting the party’s reputation for rigid discipline. For more insights, read FT columnist Stephen Bush’s Inside Politics.

As well as the Union, the Westminster government has to worry about the unions. The months of widespread industrial action have been damaging, both economically and politically. This week there is the tantalising prospect of some resolutions to the pay disputes. But brace yourself. Strikes remain on the cards by teachers, doctors, civil servants, rail workers and Amazon warehouse staff, peaking with a day of action on Budget day.

I am always open to your new ideas. Thanks again for your comments about this newsletter. Email me at [email protected] or if you have received this note in your inbox, hit reply.

Economic data

Aside from the UK Budget, the other significant economic events this week will be the latest rate decision by the European Central Bank on Thursday and (in sympathy with the early spring weather) a torrent of US and China statistics.

We will also get updates on the British and Australian employment markets while the Bank of England and Ipsos report on inflation expectations. Japan has machinery orders and trade data while India updates on its inflation rate measured by the consumer price index.

Companies

Volkswagen, the continent’s largest carmaker, reports on Tuesday, although much of this has been trailed. The company has also already dropped the bombshell that it is reordering its priorities to pursue a North American battery plant ahead of one in eastern Europe.

Like its tech sector peers Deliveroo, which reports full-year figures on Thursday, is focused on cutting costs. Last week it unveiled plans for a 9 per cent reduction in its headcount, or 350 jobs. This excludes delivery riders, who are classified as contractors.

The John Lewis Partnership is an employee-owned business, but its annual results on Thursday will no doubt be pored over given its status among British retailers. The department store chain, and owner of the Waitrose supermarket brand, has in recent years lost some of its lustre among retail analysts after it scrapped its partner bonus for the first time in 67 years in 2020. Changes have been made, but problems persist. There is ongoing uncertainty about the full-year bonus, and the resignation of the department store operation’s managing director Pippa Wicks last week is never a good look.

Elsewhere in retail we have numbers from Inditex and H&M, the latter being a trading update rather than a results call. One question for these European market leaders is how they respond to the competition from lower-priced Chinese rivals, such as Shein and Temu.

Key economic and company reports

Here is a more complete list of what to expect in terms of company reports and economic data this week.

Monday

• India, February consumer price index inflation rate data

• US, S&P Global purchasing managers’ index business outlook survey

• US, January labour market statistics

• Results: BuzzFeed Q4, Direct Line FY, Getty Images Q4, Phoenix Group FY, Porsche annual analyst and investor conference, Tod’s FY

Tuesday

• EU, Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin) meeting in Brussels of all finance ministers from member states

• Italy, monthly industrial production figures

• UK, monthly labour market data

• UK, February insolvency figures

• US, February CPI inflation rate data

• Results: Costain Group H1, Close Brothers H1, Generali FY, Gresham Technologies FY, Old Mutual FY, Pennon Group trading statement, Sabre Insurance FY, TP ICAP FY, Volkswagen FY

Wednesday

• China, February industrial output and retail sales figures

• EU, January industrial production figures

• France, final February CPI and harmonised index of consumer prices inflation rate data

• Germany, monthly industrial production figures

• India, February trade balance data

• UK, Spring Budget

• US, February producer price index inflation rate data and retail sales figures

• Results: Adobe Q1, Balfour Beatty FY, BMW annual conference, E.ON FY, Foxconn Q4, H&M Q1 sales update, Inditex FY, Marshalls FY, Prudential FY, Trainline FY trading update

Thursday

• EU, European Central Bank interest rate announcement

• Japan, February trade balance figures (AM local time)

• UK, Q4 rail usage figures

• US, initial unemployment claims

• Results: Centamin FY, Deliveroo FY, DFS Furniture H1, Dollar General Q4, Enel FY, Eni FY, FedEx Q3, Gym Group FY, Investec pre-close briefing, John Lewis Partnership FY, Polymetal International FY, Rentokil Initial FY, RTL Group FY, Savills FY

Friday

• OECD interim economic outlook report of the near-term prospects for the global economy

• EU, harmonised February CPI and HICP inflation rate figures

• Russia, Bank of Russia monetary policy rate-setting meeting

• UK, February Bank of England/Ipsos inflation attitudes survey

• US, February industrial production figures

World events

Finally, here is a rundown of other events and milestones this week.

Monday

• UK, more strikes over pay demands. Tens of thousands of junior doctors in England begin three days of industrial action, while more than 350 GMB union members at Amazon’s Coventry fulfilment centre start a week-long walk out. However, NHS workers in GMB Scotland will vote on a 6.5 per cent pay offer

• UK, the Scottish National Party leadership election ballot opens, with the three candidates already involved in heated exchanges. Voting ends on 27 March

• UK, a service will be held at Westminster Abbey to mark Commonwealth Day, the annual celebration of the Commonwealth of Nations.

• US, president Joe Biden meets with British prime minister Rishi Sunak and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese in California for talks on the Aukus defence pact, including whether to help Canberra build its first nuclear-powered submarines

• Vatican City, the Catholic Church celebrates 10 years of Pope Francis’s papacy

Tuesday

• EU, Brussels unveils its Net Zero Industry Act as part of its wider Green Deal Industrial Plan, loosening rules on state aid and potential EU-level subsidies

• UK, start of the four-day Cheltenham Festival, one of the biggest meetings in the British National Hunt horseracing calendar. The event will finish with the Cheltenham Gold Cup race on Friday

Wednesday

• Netherlands, provincial elections

• UK, a TUC-led national day of action timed to coincide with chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Budget speech. As well as junior doctors and Amazon staff, over 70,000 members of the Universities and College Union begin three days of industrial action over pay, pensions and working conditions. Schoolteachers in the NEU union in England and Wales will begin two days of strikes and BBC local radio journalists will walk out in the morning, potentially impacting Budget day coverage. Meanwhile, 100,000 civil servants in the Public and Commercial Services union — including Border Force and DVLA staff — are striking over pay and London Underground train drivers in the Aslef and RMT unions will walk out for 24 hours in protest at modernisation plans they claim compromise Tube safety

• UK, the FT’s Climate Capital Live Summit is held at London’s County Hall and online. Click here to register for a place

Thursday

• France, billionaire Kostyantyn Zhevago is due to appear at the court of appeals in Chambery following Ukraine’s request to extradite him. The businessman, who controls London-listed iron pellet producer Ferrexpo, is wanted on suspicion of embezzlement and money-laundering

• Poland, Czech president Petr Pavel meets his Polish counterpart in a two-day state visit to the neighbouring EU nation

• Russia, president Vladimir Putin is due to address the plenary session of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs

• Rwanda, the 73rd Fifa Congress begins in Kigali with the footballing body’s outspoken president Gianni Infantino up for re-election

• Singapore, the FT’s one-day Wealth Summit Asia at The Westin Singapore and online. Click here to book a place

• UK, RMT union members working for 14 train operating companies begin further strike action in a long-running dispute over pay and changes to working patterns. RMT members at Network Rail, which manages the track, suspended their action to vote on a pay offer

Friday

• St Patrick’s day celebrations in numerous countries for Ireland’s patron saint

• Bangladesh, birthday of father of the nation. Financial markets closed

• Ukraine, ninth anniversary of Russian President Vladimir Putin signing a decree recognising the autonomous Ukrainian region of Crimea as a sovereign state

• UK, Unite’s strike ballot closes for more than 3,000 security guards, engineers and firefighters employed by Heathrow Airports

• UK, Liberal Democrat party’s spring conference opens in York

• US, hearing date set for Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes to ask a judge to pause her prison sentence of more than 11 years while she seeks an appeals court review of her conviction on charges of defrauding investors

Saturday

• Portugal, thousands of workers are expected to take to Lisbon’s streets as part of a protest organised by the country’s largest workers’ union CGTP to demand higher wages amid the cost of living crisis

• UK, ongoing weekend strike action over rosters by barge workers in the Unite union employed by Serco at the Devonport dockyard in Plymouth, disrupting the refuelling of naval vessels

Sunday

• France, remembrance day for victims of the 1954-62 Algerian war

• Kazakhstan, parliamentary elections

• Montenegro, presidential elections

• UK, Mothering Sunday, also known as mother’s day