Time to wrap up…. here are today’s main stories, first on the budget:

And in other news….

Just in: US consumer confidence has taken a knock this month.

The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index has fallen to February to 106.7, down from 110.9 in January, ending a three-month run of gains.

The Present Situation Index – based on consumers’ assessment of current business and labor market conditions – fell to 147.2 from 154.9 in January.

The Expectations Index – based on consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business, and labor market conditions – slipped to 79.8 from 81.5 in January. An Expectations Index reading below 80 often signals recession ahead, the Conference Board says.

Dana Peterson, chief economist at The Conference Board, says the drop in consumer confidence reflects “persistent uncertainty about the US economy,” adding:

“The drop in confidence was broad-based, affecting all income groups except households earning less than $15,000 and those earning more than $125,000.

Confidence deteriorated for consumers under the age of 35 and those 55 and over, whereas it improved slightly for those aged 35 to 54.”

Over in the US, Macy’s has announced plans to close 150 “underproductive” stores – more than a fifth of its department store empire – over the next three years.

The business said it would shutter about 50 outlets by the end of 2024 after issuing a muted trading outlook for the year ahead.

As part of what it calls a “bold new chapter”, the retailer – which in January announced plans to cut 2,350 jobs, or 3.5% of its workforce – said it would concentrate more on luxury shopping.

As part of this focus, Macy’s plans to open 15 of its higher-end Bloomingdale’s stores, and 30 Blue Mercury cosmetics locations.

“A bold new chapter serves as a strong call to action,” Tony Spring, the new chief executive officer of Macy’s, said.

“It challenges the status quo to create a more modern Macy’s, Inc.”

Over in the City, protesters from Extinction Rebellion have occupied the offices of several major insurance firms.

Protests have taken place inside the “Walkie Talkie” building, which holds the offices of Tokio Marine, plus offices in Leadenhall Street, which Probitas operates from, Threadneedle Street, home of Talbot, and Creechurch Place, where Travelers operates.

XR say they want to “engage constructively” with insurance bosses, and encourage them to stop ensuring companies who are wrecking the climate.

They also ‘occupied’ the offices of Zurich in the Shadwell area of London.

A leading UK entrepreneur has warned that the government’s migration crackdown risks damaging UK higher education institutions, and could set back the country’s ambitions to be a leader in science and technology.

Ewan Kirk, founder of quantitative hedge fund Cantab Capital Partners, told Bloomberg that making the UK less attractive for overseas students will lead to a university funding shortfall and a reduced pool of talent for British employers.

Thiw would undermine the government’s efforts to make the UK the next Silicon Valley.

More here: Hedge Fund Founder Says UK Migration Curbs Pose Risk to Economy.

Late last year, the UK announced a package of measures designed to cut the number of migrant workers and their dependants entering the UK, including lifting the minimum salary requirement for a skilled worker visa.

The fast-fashion company Shein is reportedly considering a stock market flotation in London rather than New York because of potential problems with a listing in the US, its preferred location.

And Jeremy Hunt is said to be keen to persuade Shein to pick the City over Wall Street:

Shein, which was founded in China but is based in Singapore, is in the early stages of exploring an initial public offering in London because it believes it is unlikely that the US Securities and Exchange Commission would approve its initial public offering (IPO), Bloomberg reported.

A UK listing would be a potential boost to the country’s standing as a global financial centre, after a number of companies snubbed the London stock exchange in favour of the Nasdaq in New York, despite the government’s efforts to persuade more firms to list there.

More here:

Q: Do fiscal pressures mean the State need to stop doing some things?

IFS director Paul Johnson says the UK has a decision to make – it can keep providing the current public services, if people accept that taxes will remain at their current levels, and possibly rise higher over time.

The UK has been struggling to avoid this for a long time, Johnson adds – pointing out that in other countries the tax burden rose in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, while the UK’s didn’t.

We’re sort of catching up with them, although we haven’t broadly caught up with the rest of Western Europe.

Some state commitments have been dropped since the 70s, Johnson points out – we’re not subsidising nationalised industries, or building public housing, while there’s a lot more private finance in higher education.

Defence spending has been “dramatically cut”, Johnson adds. But that’s now likely to rise in the next few years.

It’s hard to see where further deep spending cuts can be made, Johnson adds, given how many public sectors – such as local government, justice, prisons and social care – are already struggling.

My guess is that we’re more likely to end up with higher taxes than we are with the state withdrawing from some provision.

But that is a conversation we ought to be having, and we’re not.

UK borrowing in 2023–24 is now on course to be £113bn, the IFS estimate, which is £11bn less than forecast by the OBR in November.

But it’s still a high amount, the IFS point out today – and “much bigger than forecast two years ago”.

Debt is “barely on a downward trajectory” in five years time, despite the forecasts being predicated on unspecified cuts to public spending after the election.

The IFS’s Carl Emmerson says:

Clearly the risk here is that whoever is chancellor after the election might be unable or unwilling to deliver on those spending plans.

Therefore, the IFS thinks any fresh tax cuts should be delayed until a detailed Spending Review has been held, rather than implementing further tax cuts now that are “paid for” by uncertain spending cuts in the next parliament.

Marks & Spencer is lifting its pay rates for staff, so that every employee in store will receive at least the Real Living Wage as their base pay.

From 1 April, its 40,000 UK customer assistants will see their pay rise by 10.1%, from £10.90 to £12.00 per hour, worth around £180 per month.

Customer assistants working in London are getting a 9.1% rise, from £12.05 to £13.15 per hour.

For M&S’s UK Team Support Managers, the hourly rate will increase from £12.20 to £13.05, while for those in London, it will increase from £13.35 to £14.20.

The changes will cost M&S £89m.

The real Living Wage, which is based on the cost of living, is £12 or £13.15 in London.

The minimum wage (badged as the “national living wage”) is rising to £11.44 an hour in April.

From 1st April, M&S is also introducing six weeks’ paternity leave at full pay, and doubling its maternity and adoption leave to 26 weeks – also at full pay – at a cost of £5m per year.

There’s good news to report on inflation this morning.

First, shop price inflation has fallen to its lowest rate in nearly two years, according to the British Retail Consortium.

The BRC reports that shop price annual inflation eased to 2.5% in February, down from 2.9% in January, which is the lowest since March 2022. Food prices rose by 5% over the last year, and dipped by 0.1% during February alone.

Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said:

Food prices fell month-on-month with drops in fresh food including meat, fish and fruit. This was driven by easing input costs for energy and fertiliser while retailers competed fiercely to keep prices down.

In non-food, inflation for furniture, electricals, and health & beauty products rose, but the price of clothing continued to fall as many retailers kept promotions in place to entice consumer spend.

Secondly, data firm Kantar has just reported that gocery price inflation has fallen to a two-year low.

Kantar’s data shows that supermarket prices were 5.3% higher than a year ago in February, the lowest rate since March 2022, down from 6.8% in January.

Fierce competition among supermarkets is offsetting the cost of disruption to Red Sea shipping routes, Kantar’s report shows, as grocers pass on falls in raw material costs to consumers.

Falling inflation doesn’t mean prices are falling, of course – they’re just rising at a slower rate.

But that should please the Treasury and the Bank of England, as the latter tries to bring inflation down to its 2% target and keep it there.

A further squeeze on public spending would further compound the medium-term challenges for an incoming Labour Party-led government, says Mujtaba Rahman, managing director at Eurasia Group.

Labour would be forced to either raise taxes or deliver on the Tories’ spending cuts, Rahman points out in an analysis piece this morning.

Rahman says:

The chancellor has already pencilled in cuts of £20 billion over the next few years in what Labour regards as a “scorched earth” policy designed to create a rotten inheritance for the party if it wins power.

Rahman adds that Britain’s fall into recession is “politically toxic” for the government, and risks blowing a hole in Sunak’s reputation for economic competence.

He says:

Tory backbenchers privately fear that headlines about “the R-word” (recession) have not only handed Labour the slogan of “Rishi’s recession” but will also deter people from spending, which could in turn compound the UK’s growth problem.

The Times are reporting this morning that Hunt will use next week’s budget to cut national insurance, rather than income tax, and annnounce a new levy on vaping.

They say the budget on March 6 is expected to be far more limited than last year’s autumn statement, as forecasts suggest he will have much less money to spend than expected.

According to The Times:

The two main tax cuts expected in the budget are a 1 percentage-point reduction in employee national insurance, at a cost of about £4.5 billion a year, and an extension of the fuel duty freeze at a cost of £1 billion a year.

More here (£).

Jeremy Hunt’s financial planning is “dubious” and “lacks credibility” and the chancellor should not announce tax cuts in next week’s budget if he cannot lay out how he will fund them, an economic thinktank has said.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) calculates that Hunt would need to find £35bn of cuts from already threadbare public services if he plans to use a Whitehall spending freeze to pay for pre-election giveaways.

A fresh round of austerity in unprotected departments would boost the chancellor’s war chest for tax cuts, the independent tax and spending watchdog said, but an increase from an expected £15bn of headroom to about £50bn over the next five years would come at a high cost.

The IFS called for vague pledges to reduce spending to be replaced with concrete plans on where savings could be achieved, given the likely hardship and difficulty of achieving further reductions. Its report said:

“The economic case for tax cuts is weak. The public finances remain in a poor position.

More here:

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling of business, the financial markets, and the world economy.

With just over week to go until the budget, Jeremy Hunt is being warned not to risk unfunded tax cuts that could cause ructions in the financial markets.

The chancellor is understandably keen to offer some pre-election sweeteners, in the hope of closing the gap with Labour. City economists, though, warn that there may not be as much fiscal firepower to play with as Hunt would like.

ING, the Dutch banking group, estimates that the money available for tax cuts – so-called “headroom” – now equals £18bn. That’s up from £13bn in November, but lower than estimated a few weeks ago, as the City has cut it expectations for Bank of England rate cuts.

This headroom is the amount of money the chancellor can spend, and still hit his fiscal rule – to have debt falling, as a share of GDP, in five years time.

£13bn could, potentially, allow the chancellor to cut income tax by 2p in the pound – as a 1p cut to the basic rate of income tax is slated to cost roughly £7bn/year. That wouldn’t leave very much left over, though.

As ING’s developed market economist, James Smith, puts it in a research note this week:

The situation is tight. And it’s possible our estimate of headroom is too optimistic.

What about cutting spending, though, to free up money for tax cuts? ING says such spending restraint looks “unrealistic”, given the government’s current plans already imply more painful austerity for departments.

Talk of tax cuts will revive visions of the 2022 mini-budget debacle, when Kwasi Kwarteng crashed the pound and the bond markets by announcing unfunded tax cuts, without any scrutiny from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility.

The situation is different this time – the OBR will give its verdict as soon as Hunt sits down next Wednesday after delivering the budget.

Smith says that funding tax cuts today with unrealised and potentially challenging spending cuts tomorrow may “raise a few eyebrows among investors”, but in reality this wouldn’t be a new approach.

Smith told The Guardian:

“The savings earmarked so far are already very challenging and further savings appear unrealistic.

Talk of tax cuts inevitably triggers memories of the 2022 mini budget crisis, where UK government borrowing costs rose precipitously following a package of unfunded measures designed to boost growth.”

He warns, though, that fresh tax cuts could still apply some upward pressure on yields – the measure of Britain’s borrowing costs.

ING’s gauge of risk premium in the government bond market suggests investors are still keeping an eye on UK fiscal risk – with UK borrowing costs higher than Germany’s, but in line with the US.

Sizable cuts to income tax would add further impetus for the Bank of England to keep interest rates on hold a little longer, ING predicts, meaning more pain for borrowers and a delay to rate cuts.

ING reports that market conditions in the currency market are calm, which should please Hunt.

They say:

When it comes to FX markets, current market conditions could not be more different than those that prevailed at the height of the Liz Truss debacle.

But, they warn that if the chancellor was to “misread the mood of gilt investors and cause another upset”, sterling would take a hit.

ING add:

Short-term models suggest a 2% sell-off in sterling could happen quite easily were investors to again demand a risk premium of sterling asset markets.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies are pointing out this morning that UK taxes are heading to record-high levels, as a share of national income.

They warn that the public finances face an ‘unhappy outlook’, with debt high and rising, and barely on track to start falling in five year’s time.

In a warning shot to Hunt, they say:

Unless the Chancellor is willing to spell out where the cuts will fall, the temptation to scale back provisional spending plans further to ‘pay for’ new tax cuts should be avoided.

We’ll hear more from the IFS this morning, as they present their analysis of Hunt’s options ahead of the budget.

The agenda

• 8am GMT: Kantar’s latest UK supermarket sales and market share data

• 10am GMT: Institute for Fiscal Studies presents Spring Budget 2024: the Chancellor’s options

• 1.30pm GMT: US durable goods orders for January

• 1.40pm GMT: Bank of England deputy governor Dave Ramsden gives keynote address at Association for Financial Markets in Europe’s Bond Trading, Innovation and Evolution Forum