23/12/2025

BIZ & FINANCE TUESDAY | DEC 23, 2025

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UK consumers feel pinch from tax increases

Modi’s office said he had spoken to New Zealand counterpart Christopher Luxon yesterday and the two agreed that the deal, signed in a “record time of nine months”, would further deepen ties. Both “leaders agree that the free-trade agreement would serve as a catalyst for greater trade, investment, innovation and shared opportunities between both countries”, Modi’s office said in a statement. The agreement “would also open up new opportunities” for innovators, entrepreneurs and farmers, it added. – AFP Australia forces LNG exporters to keep a minimum amount for home market SYDNEY: Australia will make exporters of liquefied natural gas from the country’s east coast keep up to a quarter of their output for domestic use from 2027, under a scheme unveiled yesterday to curb price spikes and help fill a long-forecast supply gap. The centre-left government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it would work with exporters to design a system that puts a lower limit on the amount of gas held domestically, with a minimum local allocation of between 15% and 25%. The announcement puts a number on a policy that the government has flagged through 2025 amid persistent warnings about a shortage of gas supply on Australia’s east coast, where most of its 27 million population lives. “More affordable Australian gas for Australian users will support our economy and our transition, while remaining a reliable energy partner to our region,” said Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen. The proposal will only affect new contracts agreed by the LNG exporters, not their existing contracts, Bowen said. Australia is the world’s third-largest LNG exporter, shipping out far more gas than it consumes. The competition regulator warned yesterday that the expected local shortfall had widened, with output dropping from legacy fields off the south coast. The scheme was recommended by a gas market review ordered by the government in mid-2025, which was also published yesterday. The review said a gas reservation scheme would put downward pressure on prices and urged the government to consider ending a A$12 per gigajoule price cap in place since 2022. Bowen, in his statement, said the gas reservation scheme would be based on the review recommendation but he did not say whether the government would phase out the price cap. The scheme would impact three LNG export plants in Queensland, particularly Gladstone LNG, which is operated by Santos and backed by Korea Gas Corp, TotalEnergies and Malaysia’s Petronas. It has typically relied on third-party domestic gas to meet export commitments. A GLNG representative was not immediately available for comment. Rival export consortia Australia Pacific LNG (APLNG), led by Origin Energy with ConocoPhillips and Sinopec , was also unavailable for comment. Shell, which leads a third exporter Queensland Curtis LNG with CNOOC and MidOcean Energy, called the scheme “an important first step” and it looked forward to work on the details. – Reuters

“The breakdown in growth in Q3 was a bit less reliant on government spending than in the first estimate,” Alex Kerr, UK economist at Capital Economics, said. However, the overall data confirmed the slowdown in the economy after its strong start to 2025 and Capital expected only 1.0% growth next year, down from 1.4% this year, Kerr said. Monday’s data showed that Britain’s GDP in the third quarter was 1.3% higher than a year ago – unchanged from the ONS’s initial estimate – while on a per capita basis, output was 0.9% higher than the year before. Britain’s current account deficit in the three months to the end of September totalled £12.1 billion, compared with a Reuters poll forecast of £21.1 billion and equivalent to 1.6% of GDP, less than 2.8% in the second quarter. The ONS said revisions to its data meant income flowing into Britain from foreign direct investment held abroad had been higher than previously thought while earnings in Britain by foreign investors were revised down. – Reuters

took a hit from tax increases which outweighed income growth and from inflation. But household consumption grew by 0.3% from the second quarter when it showed no growth. It was the fastest quarter-on-quarter increase in a year. Finance Minister Rachel Reeves increased taxes in her first budget in 2024, including on some forms of wealth income, although most of the burden fell on employers rather than individuals. Britain grew by the most among Group of Seven large advanced economies in the first half of 2025, alongside Japan, but it has slowed sharply since then, in part due to months of uncertainty about possible tax increases in Reeves’ second budget which she announced on November 26. Last week, the Bank of England said it expected zero GDP growth in the October-to-December period but it thought that the underlying pace of economic growth was around 0.2% per quarter.

o Saving ratio drops to lowest in over a year, economy slows sharply

LONDON: British households saved less in the July-to-September period of this year as they felt the hit from higher taxes but still increased their spending, according to official data which confirmed a slowdown in the broader economy. Gross domestic product grew by only 0.1%, the Office for National Statistics said, in line with its initial estimate and forecasts by economists polled by Reuters. Growth in the April-to-June period was revised down to 0.2% from a previous estimate of 0.3%. The ONS said the saving ratio dropped by 0.7 percentage points to 9.5%, its lowest in over a year, as real household disposable incomes

Shoppers looks at a stall at a Christmas market in Trafalgar Square in London. – AFPPIC

New Zealand agrees to free trade deal with India WELLINGTON: New Zealand said yesterday it had agreed a

coalition partner not to rush into concluding a low-quality deal with India,” Peters said. “Unfortunately, these pleas went unheeded.” But McClay said it ensured New Zealand has tourism and rural-sector workers. “Trade grows the economy and creates jobs – the NZ-India free-trade agreement is about future-proofing opportunities for our exporters and allowing Kiwi companies to continue to punch above their weight on the world stage,” he added. Indian Prime Minister Narendra

away, especially on immigration, and does not get enough in return for New Zealanders, including on dairy.” The deal simplifies entry to New Zealand for some Indian workers, including 1,667 temporary work visas each year for the information and communications technology sector, engineering and some health services. It also includes a working holiday scheme allowing up to 1,000 people aged 18-30, and allows Indian students to work for up to 20 hours a week. “New Zealand First urged its

that it “will deliver thousands of jobs and billions in additional exports”. New Zealand’s conservative National Party-led coalition government made a promise in 2024 that it would negotiate a deal with India, after the previous, left-leaning Labour administration was unable to get one across the line. However, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, the leader of coalition partner New Zealand First, warned the pact was “neither free nor fair”. “Regrettably, this is a bad deal for New Zealand. It gives too much

wide-ranging free-trade deal with India that eliminates tariffs on 95% of the Pacific country’s exports, but the government’s coalition partner labelled it a bad agreement. Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay said the deal, which comes into effect in the first half of next year, gave unprecedented access to India’s 1.4 billion consumers. “This once-in-a-generation agreement creates opportunities New Zealand exporters have never had in India,” McClay said, adding