Britain’s debt interest payments hit record high for November Business

Thanks for joining me. Public sector borrowing was more than expected in November and ahead of last year in a blow to the Chancellor’s ambitions to cut taxes.

Public sector net borrowing excluding banks was £24.4bn higher in the eight months to November than over the same period last year, standing at £116.4bn.

For the month of November, total Treasury borrowing excluding public sector banks was £14.3bn, ahead of economists expectations of £13bn.

5 things to start your day 

1) Warner Bros and Paramount plot £30bn Hollywood megamerger | Warner would be expected to dominate the merged business

2) Investors bet rates could start falling by March after surprise drop in inflation | Lower fuel prices and easing food costs helped CPI fall to 3.9pc in November

3) BT scrambles to rip out Huawei tech ahead of New Year’s Eve deadline | Telecoms giant risks hefty fine if it fails to remove kit from ‘core’ networks by Dec 31

4) More lorries to clog motorways after rail freight plans scaled back | Ministers reject move that could have taken 20m lorry journeys off roads

5) Tom Stevenson: My prediction for 2024 is that the FTSE 100 will boom | Recession could arrive in 2024 but with luck, any downturn will be shallow

What happened overnight 

Asian shares retreated after Wall Street snapped a long winning streak, while US Treasury yields were near five-month lows amid hopes that Britain’s sharp fall in inflation would be echoed in looming American price data.

Tokyo stocks closed lower after Toyota announced a recall of a million vehicles, and its subsidiary Daihatsu decided to suspend shipments of all models over rigged safety tests.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index lost 1.6pc, or 535.47 points, to end at 33,140.47, while the broader Topix index fell 1pc, or 23.40 points, to 2,325.98.

Australian shares were down 0.4pc, while China’s blue-chip CSI300 index remained flat. It is on track for a sixth straight weekly loss, which could be its worst weekly performance in 12 years and a record fifth consecutive monthly loss.

Wall Street shares were down on Wednesday after rises fuelled last week by the US Fed chair Jerome Powell, who indicated that interest rate cuts should materialise next week. 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 leading US companies was down 1.3pc at 37,082.00, while the S&P 500 declined 1.5pc to close at 4,698.35. The Nasdaq Composite index was down 1.5pc at 14,777.94.

Yields of US Treasury bonds have been dropping since late October on hopes of interest rate cuts, and they fell again following encouraging UK inflation data. The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury bonds dropped to 3.85pc from 3.93pc late on Tuesday.