NOT SO INTERESTING UK interest rates might have to hit 2% or more next year in order to slow soaring price rises, a member of the Bank of England’s rate setting committee has said. Michael Saunders said rate rises “still have some way to go” in the attempt to control inflation. UK interest rates currently stand at 1.25%, up from 0.1% in December 2021. Inflation – the rate at which prices rise - is at a 40-year high of 9.1% and expected to rise further by the autumn. Raising interest rates makes it more expensive for consumers and businesses to borrow. The idea is that people start spending less, helping slow demand for goods and services and, in turn, reducing the pace of price rises. But some economists have warned that increases in interest rates may have little effect on inflation as one of the main factors behind it at the moment is rising global oil and gas prices.
NEWS BULLETIN ❛❛ The art of pleasing consists of being pleased ❜❜ William Hazlitt, Essayist 1817 WHAT CAN WE BELIEVE? Amazon is taking legal action against the administrators of more than 10,000 Facebook groups, the BBC has learned. It says the groups are generating fake reviews on Amazon marketplaces in the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Japan. The tech giant says the groups offer money or free goods in exchange for reviews being posted on Amazon. One of the groups, removed earlier this year by Facebook’s parent company Meta, had 43,000 members. It was called “Amazon Product Review”. Once the people in the group had purchased selected products and left their reviews, the administrators would refund them. A wide range of goods was involved, including car stereos and camera tripods. Large numbers of reviews, especially positive ones, boost sellers’ visibility on Amazon’s platforms - as well as placing them higher up on search engine results.
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TOYS”R”RETURNING One of America’s most iconic toy stores is returning to bricks-and-mortar retail just in time for this year’s holiday season. Toys”R”Us will open shops inside every Macy’s store in the United States by mid-October, part of a rollout that began in 2021. The in-store shops will range from 1,000 to 10,000 square feet, with the ability to expand up to an additional 3,000 square feet to offer an even wider assortment of products. The shops will feature handson demonstration tables, as well as a life-size Geoffrey Giraffe sitting on a bench for families to take photos with. If this is successful, UK stores will also reopen.
