Gold hits record high over $3,000 amid rising geopolitical tensions; Thames Water receives six takeover offers – as it happened

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as gold hits $3,027 per ounce

Is Trump driving the US into a recession? – in charts

Warning lights are flashing on a dashboard of economic indicators as analysts grow alarmed about a ‘Trumpcession’

VR headsets, yoga mats and pool sliders added to UK ‘inflation basket’

Pulled pork replaces oven-ready gammon joints, and local newspaper adverts are out on ONS list

‘In a rut’: cost of fixing pothole-plagued roads in England and Wales soars to £17bn

Despite the government pledging extra funds and one hole being filled every 18 seconds, motoring groups say situation looks ‘bleak’ for drivers

Oil price lifted by US Houthi airstrikes and China economic hopes; Crispin Odey facing City ban and £1.8m fine – as it happened

Crude prices lifted by US-Houthi attacks, as City watchdog decides to fine Crispin Odey £1.8m and ban him from the UK financial services industry for ‘a lack of integrity’

Former Bank of England deputy warns Rachel Reeves against kneejerk cuts

Charlie Bean says OBR forecasts are ‘flaky’ and cautions against trying to hit targets five years away

Trump trade wars are slowing global growth and fuelling inflation, says OECD

Economic organisation downgrades forecasts for growth in UK as well as US, Canada and Mexico due to tariffs

Labour’s plan to overhaul long-term benefits is laudable, putting a moral slant on it is not

Painting a veneer of morality over welfare cuts risks people fighting a tougher battle for support they need

Fear of a tariff ‘Trumpcession’ puts pressure on Bank and Fed over interest rates

A trade war could push up inflation when both the UK and US economies really need cheaper borrowing. So what’s a central bank to do?

If even Germany is embracing higher spending, why on earth can’t Labour?

Russia has pushed Europe into a quasi-Keynesian approach to the defence budget. Only Britain insists on cutting help to the sick to pay for security

Benefits cuts now? What’s the point of a Labour MP who votes for something so cruel, tin-eared and short-sighted?

Treating disabled and sick people callously flies in the face of all the party stands for – the government must rethink its plans, writes the MP John McDonnell

‘They’re on. They’re off. We can’t plan’ – bourbon makers dazed by Trump tariffs

The president’s chaotic policy on import duties makes planning impossible, says the CEO of a Kentucky distillery – and state Republicans are unhappy, too

Economists urge Rachel Reeves to bend fiscal rules instead of cutting welfare

Calls for chancellor to exclude defence from rules or raise taxes in response to spending pressure at spring statement

UK economy shrinks in January; stocks and euro jump on German debt deal – as it happened

UK economy unexpectedly contracts by 0.1% in January in blow to the chancellor ahead of spring statement; Friedrich Merz declares: ‘Germany is back’

UK economy shrinks unexpectedly in blow to Rachel Reeves

ONS data showing 0.1% fall in GDP in January comes less than two weeks before chancellor’s spring statement