Banking

UK five-year fixed mortgage rates finally drop below 6%The average five-year fixed mortgage rate has dropped below 6% for the first time since the market turmoil created by the disastrous mini-budget two months ago.Moneyfacts reports that the typical five-year fixed deal now costs 5.95% per year, the lowest in seven weeks.That’s down 6.5% a month ago, but still higher than before the mini-budget, when average 5-year and 2-year rates were both around 4.75%.Mortgage rates have been dropping since Jeremy Hunt tore up his predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng’s plans in mid-October. The...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian authorities have begun evacuating civilians from recently liberated sections of the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, fearing that a lack of heat, power and water due to Russian shelling will make living conditions too difficult this winter. The World Health Organization concurred, warning that millions face a “life-threatening” winter in Ukraine.Authorities urged residents of the two southern regions, which Russian forces have been shelling for months, to move to safer areas in the central and and western parts of the country. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna...

Dire, grim, dismal: all words used to describe the UK’s economic situation after Thursday’s autumn statement.In recent decades, the UK’s GDP growth averaged somewhere between the higher rate of the US and the lower rate in the eurozone. That’s starting to change, Carsten Brzeski, global head of macroeconomics for ING Research, told the Observer. “It took Brexit for the UK to converge with the eurozone economy,” he said. “The outlook is very similar to what we’re seeing in continental Europe.”Britain’s post-pandemic recovery has been notably weak. The latest slimmed-down OBR...