Aurelia Butler

Good morning. As markets contend with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, turmoil in the banking sector has also popped up in Europe. Credit Suisse shares plunged a day after the bank revealed that its auditor had identified “material weaknesses” in its financial reporting controls. We have the details below. Separately, the exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui has been arrested on US fraud charges over an investment scam targeting thousands of his online followers.Here’s what else to keep tabs on today:Wealth Summit Asia: Join the FT for a must-attend, one-day event for market-leading private banks, family offices and wealth managers. Register here.Iran-UAE talks Iran’s top security official will travel to the United Arab Emirates for talks in the latest sign of improving relations between the nations.ECB rate decision: The European Central Bank has made clear it intends to raise its deposit rate by half a percentage point to 3 per cent.Today’s top news1. The Swiss central bank said it would provide a liquidity backstop to Credit Suisse after the lender’s shares cratered as much as 30 per cent, sparking a broader sell-off in European and US bank stocks.Alphaville: There’s no contagion between US regional banks and Switzerland’s financial markets, besides bad vibes. 2. US regulators are preparing to respond to collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. The chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission has called for a strengthening of “the guardrails of finance” in the wake of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, while the Federal Reserve is weighing tougher rules on capital and liquidity for midsized banks. Relationship banking: Young tech companies, a large part of SVB’s deposits, are scrambling to rearrange their banking arrangements following SVB’s collapse.3. US prosecutors have charged Chinese businessman Guo Wengui with being a serial fraudster who funded his lavish exile through a string of investment scams. Guo, a critic of the Communist government who fled to New York, was arrested yesterday in connection with an alleged scheme to misappropriate more than $1bn from thousands of his online followers.4. One of Hong Kong’s most senior finance officials is planning to visit the UK in April in the territory’s first ministerial-level trip to the country in three years and a sign of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s quiet reset of UK-China economic relations.5. The US defence secretary discussed the downing of a US surveillance drone over the Black Sea with his Russian counterpart in a rare conversation amid escalating tensions over the incident.Related read: The IMF is finalising a four-year lending programme worth $15.6bn for Ukraine.The Big Read

Disney chief executive Bob Iger poses on the red carpet with sith Stormtroopers for the European film premiere of ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ in London © Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images

Since Bob Iger’s second term as Disney chief executive began in November, one topic has dominated conversations: what to do with Hulu, the popular but complicated streaming service in which Disney owns a majority stake. The debate, which also includes the future of the ESPN sports network, gets to a bigger question: what kind of company should Disney be?We’re also reading . . . Taiwan: Relations between Honduras and Taiwan, which date back to 1941, are being cut as the Central American country opens official relations with China.Special report: Technology groups dominate the FT’s fourth annual ranking of high-growth companies in the Asia-Pacific which is published today. Chart of the dayChina’s consumer spending returned to growth in the first two months of 2023. Data points to an early sign of a recovery, but the first comprehensive overview of activity since Beijing ended its pandemic restrictions pointed to a mixed economic picture.

You are seeing a snapshot of an interactive graphic. This is most likely due to being offline or JavaScript being disabled in your browser.

Take a break from the newsHow does the Boeing 787 Dreamliner compare with the Boeing 747, the double-decker “Queen of the Skies”? As the last of the 747s enters service, Mark Vanhoenacker shares a pilot’s perspective on how flying has evolved. Additional contributions by Gordon Smith and Tee Zhuo. More

Brussels is to impose curbs on imports of Chinese green technologies, demoting bidders for public contracts and making it harder for buyers to access subsidies.The measures are expected to be unveiled by the European Commission on Thursday as part of a more aggressive drive to tackle China’s dominance in supplying products including solar panels and heat pumps. Under a draft of the Net Zero Industry Act seen by the Financial Times, public procurement bids using products from a country with more than 65 per cent EU market share would be downgraded. Similar rules would apply to any government programme subsidising consumer purchases. “China is a prime example,” said a person familiar with the plans.Ursula von der Leyen, commission president, has called for the EU to “de-risk” its exposure to China as Brussels seeks to reduce its dependency on the country’s manufactured goods and inches closers to the US’s tough stance on its communist regime.China is responsible for more than 90 per cent of some parts used in solar panels, the document says, and is increasing its dominance of other supply chains including wind turbine production and electric vehicles. This trend has prompted policymakers to acknowledge that the EU is replacing a dependence on Russian gas for one on clean technology from China.But the commission’s trade directorate is concerned that the proposed changes to the public procurement rule book could breach international rules, according to people familiar with the situation. “It’s important that it is consistent with our WTO obligations, our government procurement agreement obligations,” said one, in reference to the World Trade Organization which bans discriminatory policies.“An important element is to ensure that it doesn’t end up being some kind of green protectionism and that we do not make the green transition more expensive both for private companies and for taxpayers.”The draft act could still change after internal discussions between commission departments ahead of its publication. The draft proposal described the diversity of supply as a key component in the assessment of bids. “Supply shall . . . be deemed insufficiently diversified where a single third country supplies more than 65 per cent of the demand for a specific net zero technology within the union,” it says.It would also assess the tenders’ environmental sustainability, which could count against Chinese imports. In sectors where the EU industry is still strong, such as wind turbines and heat pumps, “our trade balance is deteriorating”, the draft warns, amid rising energy and input costs for European manufacturers. Brussels intends to reverse this trend by intervening in the market with the goal of increasing EU production of green technologies to 40 per cent by 2030. The commission will also seeks to boost nascent carbon capture technology by requiring big oil and gas extractors to commit to storing up to 50mn tonnes of CO₂ annually by 2030, with each company given an individual target. Eadbhard Pernot, policy manager at the NGO Clean Air Task Force, said such targets were the “first of a kind”.A separate proposal on critical raw materials on Thursday will be aimed at facilitating domestic mining of lithium and other minerals used in green technology. Brussels intends to introduce tougher environmental measures to restrict imports, according to a draft version of the text which is still being finalised. After the commission publishes its proposals the European parliament and member states have to agree before they become law, a process which can take up to two years.China on Wednesday demanded that European countries implementing significant environmental trade measures submit a written report to the WTO so its members could discuss their legal basis, impact on trade, consistency with international rules and how those measures might impact developing countries, a Geneva-based trade official said. Beijing wanted to start with the EU’s carbon border tax, which will force foreign importers to cover the cost of their CO₂ emissions as of 2026. More

The jump in rent has come as a cruel postscript to the coronavirus pandemic in the south coast town of Hastings, tipping low-income earners and the unemployed towards destitution.There were some welcome palliatives in the UK Budget on Wednesday — a surprise boost to childcare funding aimed at getting parents back to work, and a three-month extension to energy bill support chief among them.But for many people in the town, one of the poorest in the south of England, household budgets have long ceased to add up. The chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Spring Statement did little to change that.The dial on universal credit welfare support “is set so low” it never makes up the difference, according to Tracy Dighton, chief officer at the 1066 Citizens Advice bureau in Hastings, offering free advice to people on how to resolve financial and other problems.“It feels like the whole place is held together with bits of string and love,” she said, stressing how central the voluntary sector has become to basic survival. Tracy Dighton, chief officer of the Citizens Advice 1066 bureau in Hastings: ‘It feels like the whole place is held together with bits of string and love’ © Charlie Bibby/FTA surge of interest in once relatively cheap property meant Hastings had the second-highest increase in rental costs in the country between 2021-22, according to estate agents Zoopla. This has landed on top of soaring food and energy costs to stretch the gap between income and expenditure to breaking point for many households.The chancellor has been under pressure to alleviate the most acute cost of living crisis in generations, with voting intentions in the balance in bellwether constituencies such as Hastings, which has historically swung between the Conservatives and Labour party on a fine margin.But with inflation running in recent months at 40-year highs, his Budget underwhelmed many residents. Dighton welcomed the extension to energy support, which will bring an average of £160 relief to struggling households over the next three months. She also welcomed a £100mn fund to help charities and community groups meet rising costs.Staff at the Citizens Advice 1066 bureau in Hastings field calls from clients © Charlie Bibby/FTBut, she said, the measures were insufficient and she worried that people experiencing real hardship for the first time would continue falling through the net. “It feels like bits and pieces rather than something that will make a structural difference,” she said, adding that she had hoped for something bold and new, such as an “essential” tariff for utility bills, or an uplift above inflation in universal credit.“If you’ve lost all your savings after having one thing and another in the pandemic, you have no wriggle room left.”The average income in Hastings at £28,000 is 30 per cent lower than the national average.Ross Mudie, research analyst at the Centre for Progressive Policy think-tank, said coastal towns such as Hastings have faced particular challenges because residents are typically on low incomes or work seasonally. Hastings had the second-highest increase in rental costs in the country between 2021-22, according to estate agents Zoopla © Charlie Bibby/FTThey might have got by when inflation was at 2 per cent but have struggled since it shot into double digits last year, he said.“The big news is about keeping the energy price as is. It’s good for the next three months, but it’s not going to do anything to reduce fuel poverty over the long term.”Nor was there anything to address the housing crisis.Rent in Hastings, like many places, is on the rise, but at 10 per cent it has shot up dramatically when a surge in people during the pandemic, chiefly from London, began buying properties on the seafront and the old town, many for use as second homes or Airbnb rentals, according to the council.Tanya Mitchell, a 48-year-old teaching assistant with two children and a partner working as a parcel courier, said typically her rent had previously risen by £20 or less each year. By cutting back on non-essential expenditure and turning the heating off this winter, they had got by until her landlord raised the rent by £40 to £835 a month for 2023, she said. This had pushed the family to the brink.“We have been good tenants for 15 years. There should be a cap on what landlords can realistically charge.”Dennis Bond, a pensioner in Hastings: ‘You try and do your best, but you just get knocked in the teeth’ © Charlie Bibby/FTProspects for 73-year-old Dennis Bond, a soldier for 20 years before becoming a podiatrist, were also bleak even though he owns a small bungalow outright, has three pensions, an army one, a state one, and a small private one, adding up to £1,600 a month. He said he had been paying about £600 a month more in general costs than his income. “You try and do your best, but you just get knocked in the teeth.”The Conservative MP for the town, Sally-Ann Hart, who won the constituency with a margin of just over 4000 votes in 2019, did not respond to requests for an interview.Paul Barnett, Labour leader of the council, said his biggest worry was housing.Paul Barnett, leader of the council in Hastings © Charlie Bibby/FT“People during the pandemic flocked to Hastings attracted by the unspoilt authenticity of the place — it’s like a rough diamond,” he said. But while an influx of investment has given bits of the town a facelift, it has also constrained accommodation supply.There had been a “three to four times” increase to 1,000 in the number of people needing emergency help from the council with accommodation, Barnett said.He welcomed the government’s announcements that “levelling up” funds have been allocated towards a new health and leisure centre in the town. But for the most part, he said, the measures to tackle the cost of living were “too little, too late”. More

Today’s top storiesBlackRock chief Larry Fink raised the spectre of a “slow rolling crisis” after the failure of Silicon Valley Bank. Here’s our SVB coverage in full. Credit Suisse shares plunged more than 20 per cent to an all-time low after its biggest shareholder said it would not provide the bank with any more capital, reigniting the sell-off in bank stocks triggered by the SVB collapse. Consumer spending in China rebounded in the first two months of 2023, according to the first detailed overview of activity since Beijing ended its strict pandemic restrictions. Falling export demand and the lingering property sector downturn could still dent the momentum for recovery.For up-to-the-minute news updates, visit our live blogGood evening.If you’re rich, have a child under three, have a company that does a lot of R&D, and like going to the pub: congratulations — you’re a big winner from today’s UK Budget.Chancellor Jeremy Hunt claimed his “Budget for growth” made Britain the best place to invest of any advanced economy as he announced £9bn in tax breaks for business alongside a range of measures to keep people in work, including the expansion of free childcare and a surprise decision to scrap the £1mn lifetime cap on tax-free pension contributions.Hunt’s statement was as much about demonstrating stability after the catastrophic “mini” Budget of his predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng last September. The chancellor was able to brandish new analysis from the Office for Budget Responsibility which said the UK would avoid a technical recession this year. The economy is now set to shrink just 0.2 per cent, helped by falling gas prices, before recovering to an annual growth rate of 1.9 per cent by 2027. The UK’s overall performance, as economics editor Chris Giles notes, is still extremely sluggish: before the 2007-08 global financial crisis, it had been growing on average by about 2.75 per cent a year. As our Big Read explains, the fallout from the crisis was followed by further blows from austerity, the pandemic, and Brexit.The OBR also confirmed that the UK tax burden would reach the highest level since the second world war in 2027-28 while the ratio of public spending to GDP would settle at 43.4 per cent, its highest sustained level since the 1970s, highlighting the still fragile state of the government finances. Aside from extending free childcare to one- and two-year-olds and the improvements on pension allowances, other plans to tackle labour market inactivity included incentives for the sick, disabled and over-50s to go back to work or increase their hours. Hunt will be cheered by new data yesterday showing inactivity falling and wage growth slowing.While significant personal tax cuts will probably be saved until the autumn, there were a handful of measures to help struggling households. The energy support scheme will be extended until June, capping typical bills at £2,500; last year’s fuel duty cut will be kept and the rate frozen; and there will be an 11p per pint cut in duty on draught beer in pubs.There were also incentives for carbon capture and storage as part of the green transition, while the nuclear sector would be classed as “environmentally sustainable” so it could receive the same incentives as renewable energy.While Hunt said the improved outlook for the economy was evidence that “the declinists are wrong and the optimists are right,” Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer argued in response that the statement was merely stagnation dressed up as stability and “a huge giveaway to some of the wealthiest people in the country”.Working people were entitled after 13 years of Conservative rule to ask themselves if they were better off than when the party came to office, he said. “The resounding answer is no — and they know it,” he said.Key linksFT quick guideFull text of Hunt’s speechWhat it means for your walletFull coverageNeed to know: UK and Europe economyUK prime minister Rishi Sunak was warned not to relax City of London rules after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank sparked calls for a rethink of planned regulatory overhauls.The US banking crisis could also deter the European Central Bank from committing to future interest rate rises. The ECB has already said it intends to raise borrowing costs by half a percentage point when its governing council meets tomorrow. Brussels warned Germany that a cap on electricity costs for industry would harm Europe’s single market. Splits have also opened among EU policymakers over including nuclear power in new funding rules aimed at boosting green industries. German energy giant Eon warned of another year of crisis for the sector.The EU is considering how to mirror US moves to stop companies circumventing export bans on sensitive technology by manufacturing it elsewhere. Need to know: Global economyUS consumer prices rose 6 per cent year on year in February, complicating the way forward for the US Federal Reserve and its programme of interest rate rises, and a slight fall from January’s 6.4 per cent. “Core” CPI inched up a more than expected 0.5 per cent from 0.4 per cent. Separate data today showed producer prices fell more than expected. The FT editorial board hit out at the Republicans’ game of chicken on the US debt.The US is set to become the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas after developer Venture Global announced a big expansion on a Gulf Coast site to make it among the biggest LNG export plants in the world.Lebanon’s banks began a strike over “arbitrary” judicial decisions which they said had drained their already dwindling foreign reserves. The Lebanese pound has plummeted more than 98 per cent against the US dollar since the country went into economic meltdown in 2019.Argentina’s annual inflation rate passed 100 per cent for the first time since 1991 and is now among the highest in the world. The new data comes at a difficult time for the government of President Alberto Fernández, which had hoped to ease financial pressure on voters ahead of an election in October.Bolivians meanwhile are queueing for dollars as a crisis of confidence spreads, amid concerns that its economic model of the past two decades, fuelled by exports of natural gas to its neighbours, is now bust. Rating agency Fitch yesterday downgraded the country’s debt deeper into junk territory.Need to know: businessChatGPT maker OpenAI unveiled its new model GPT-4, which has “human-level performance” and can be accessed via the $20 paid version of ChatGPT. PwC said it was introducing a GPT chatbot named Harvey to speed up the work of its 4,000 lawyers. Pfizer offered to change its Covid-19 vaccine contract with the EU after member states complained of a glut of shots but some countries are angry at its insistence on payments for doses ordered that will never be delivered.Meta is cutting another 10,000 jobs, its second tranche in just four months, as part of its “year of efficiency”.Swedish start-up Northvolt is helping Europe compete with the US and Asia in a sector crucial to the green transition. Our Big Read explains how. UK battery start-up Britishvolt owed up to £160mn when it collapsed in January. Join FT journalists and guests for a subscriber-only webinar on the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the fallout for the banking sector and tech innovation this Thursday March 16, 4-5pm GMT (12-1pm ET). Register for your free subscriber pass and put your questions to our panel The World of WorkMany organisations are now offering employees in-house therapy at a time when public healthcare systems are stretched. Trained therapists can help managers identify problems in the workforce when hybrid or remote working can make mental health issues harder to spot.Online business education programmes are still proving popular despite a drop in demand for campus-based MBAs. But what’s the best way to pick and apply for a course? Find out and discover more in our new special report: Online learning.Some good newsSome potentially great news for the more than 8mn people in the US using insulin drugs. Novo Nordisk has followed Eli Lilly in slashing prices for some of its products by 75 per cent. More

The IMF is finalising a four-year lending programme worth $15.6bn for Ukraine, with a person close to the talks saying an announcement is “imminent”.The multilateral lender has been under pressure to pull together a more comprehensive aid package for the country, which has been economically devastated by Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. The person said an announcement would come in a few days.In a statement released on Wednesday, the IMF affirmed that policy discussions with Ukrainian authorities had taken place in Warsaw, Poland, between March 8-15.“The discussions between IMF staff and the Ukrainian authorities were productive and very good progress has been made towards agreement on a set of policies that could underpin a fund-supported programme,” said Vahram Stepanyan, the IMF’s resident representative to Ukraine. “Building on this progress, staff and the authorities expect to conclude the discussions in the coming days.”Olena Bilan, chief economist at Kyiv-based investment bank Dragon Capital, said the new IMF programme is crucial — along with multibillion-dollar financing from other foreign partners including the US and EU — to help Ukraine “bridge its huge budget funding gap created by Russia’s invasion”.“The government seeks $43bn of external budget support this year, according to latest budget amendments, on top of $32bn in 2022,” Bilan said.

“While the IMF may provide only $4bn to $5bn this year, a fraction of total funding needs, the programme will anchor [the] government’s policies, will demonstrate wide support for Ukraine and thereby will help to ensure sufficient financing from other partners.”The World Bank has estimated that more than half of the country’s energy infrastructure has been destroyed by Russian attacks, exacerbating the blow to Ukraine’s economy.The size of the loan had been pegged at between $14bn-$16bn in initial discussions.The IMF previously granted Ukraine $2.7bn of emergency funding and in December approved a four-month programme for the country aimed at shoring up the economy and preparing it for a significant loan from the fund.According to figures released on Wednesday by Ukraine’s finance ministry, the country has received about $25bn in budget financing support from the US and EU, by far the largest donors, since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.Ukraine has received more than $38bn in budgetary support from foreign countries and international financial institutions since the onset of the war. More