Riders law

on consumers and a possible rise in the base rate.

Nor did they rule out a recession like Germany’s, with reduced household and business expenditure, reduced demand for debt, and a rise in unemployment.

“We already know from the Kantar grocery numbers earlier that food inflation is slowing down. In May, it came in at 17.2 per cent, but the process looks increasingly glacial,” said Michael Hewson, CMC Markets’ chief market analyst.

“For now, the central bank is in the invidious position of having no good options,” he declared.

“Do nothing and inflation will take longer to work its way out of the system, squeezing consumers further. Raise by 0.25 percentage points to show they are trying to do something,” Hewson said. “Or be more aggressive and push the economy into recession.”

THE majority of Labour Ministers from the EU’s 27 member states voted in favour of a directive setting out the working conditions for the food delivery and other riders employed by digital platforms. Spain abstained, as Yolanda Diaz, who is also second vice­president, considered that the new measures were insufficient and were “difficult to understand in democratic terms.”

Export fiasco

FIGURES from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) revealed that the UK’s goods and services exports had a value of $813 billion (€756 billion) in 2012 but rose only 6 per cent by 2021. Overall, the EU’s 27 member enjoyed a 29.1 per cent increase in the value of their exports during the same period.

Stoked up

NATIONAL GRID is in talks with power generation group Drax over bringing two coal­fired units at its Selby (North Yorkshire) plant out of retirement. ESO, the grid’s system operator, has discussed restarting the units, shut down this year after 50 years of coal­fired power generation, to prevent power cuts in winter.

Prove it

SPAIN’S Supreme Court ruled temporary public­sector employees who are not covered by the 2021 Employment Stability Act and sacked after working for several years, are not automatically entitled to compensation. Instead, they must demonstrate that dismissal has caused them significant ‘moral or financial’ damage.

Pigging out

SWIZZELS, which also makes Refreshers and Parma Violets, will redesign the Pig Mugs it has sold since 1996, after M &S argued they were too similar to their own product. M & S sells 271 bags a minute of Percy Pig fruit gums since their 1993 launch, generating a £131.7 million (€153.9m) turnover since then.

Des res

ANA GAMAZO HOHENLO­

HE, who is the wife of Juan Abello, one of Spain’s richest businessmen, intends to sell one of her properties in Calle Padilla in Madrid’s Salamanca district, equivalent to London’s Mayfair. The sale of the 8,500sqm five­storey building is expected to raise around €80 million.

Ashes to ashes

ALASDAIR WARREN, WE Soda’s chief executive, said New York could eventually be a “credible alternative” for a stock market flotation. The world’s principal natural soda ash producer abandoned plans to list in London, claiming valuations were “unrealistically low.”