UK mortgage rates fall to lowest since September 2022; China’s trade surplus hits $1tn – business live | Business
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UK mortgage rates lowest sine Truss mini-budget of 2022
The average rates on UK two- and five-year fixed mortgages have fallen to their lowest levels since early September 2022.
New data from Moneyfacts shows that average rates are now the lowest since before the Liz Truss government’s mini-Budget, which sent borrowing costs soaring.
Moneyfacts reports that the average mortgage rates on two- and five-year fixed deals fell to 4.86% and 4.91% respectively in November, both now at their lowest points since September 2022. It is the first time the average five-year fixed rate has dropped below 5% since May 2023.
This pulled the Moneyfacts Average Mortgage Rate down to 4.91% month-on-month from 4.99%. Year-on-year the rate is down by 0.53%, from 5.44% in December 2024.
The fall comes as lenders have grown increasingly confident that the Bank of England will cut interest rates next week, from 4% to 3.75%.
Rachel Springall, finance expert at Moneyfacts, says:
“Mortgage rates continue on the downward trend and November was particularly fruitful for fixed rate cuts.
The re-pricing by lenders led to the average five-year fixed rate dropping below 5% for the first time in over two years and sits at its lowest point since before the ‘mini-Budget’ in September 2022, alongside its two-year counterpart.
The average two-year fixed rate noted its biggest monthly fall since August this year, with the five-year noting its largest monthly fall in over six months (March 2025). The activity during November led to a drop in the average shelf-life of a mortgage to just 18 days, and product choice felt a positive rise to breach 7,000 deals.
Key events
The Bank of England is planning to reduce its head count, Bloomberg reports.
It plans to cut staff numbers, they say, as the BoE’s finances become strained by the cost of implementing the modernizations recommended by Ben Bernanke.
The UK central bank has invited employees to volunteer for potential layoffs, according to two people familiar with the matter. It will run “a mutually agreed, time-limited scheme for staff to choose to apply to leave,” the bank confirmed in a statement, adding that it had struck a deal for a 3% pay increase next year.
“The first signs of a full-scale price war” for mortgages
Mortgage expert Nicholas Mendes of broker John Charcol says there are signs of a “price war” in the home loans market:
Santander’s move to 3.51 per cent has very clearly set the pace, and at the moment it is the standout cheapest option for borrowers taking £500,000 or more, once fees are factored in. Nationwide’s 3.58 per cent sits just behind it, which shows how tight the spread has become at the top end of the market. This is textbook competitive positioning from the big lenders, and it signals a deliberate push to capture low-risk, high-equity borrowers before activity ramps up in the new year.
We’re now seeing the first signs of a full-scale price war. NatWest and Barclays have both given notice of further reductions landing tomorrow, and the speed at which these updates are coming through tells you lenders want to be front of mind ahead of the next Bank of England decision. With swaps holding steady and market pricing pointing towards cheaper funding conditions, the high street is clearly preparing for stronger demand in early 2026.
Giant angry Magnum protests about ice-cream spin-off
Sarah Butler
The co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s has teamed up with a giant angry Magnum to protest against the spin off of Unilever’s ice cream division today.
Ben Cohen, the co-founder of the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream brand, said:
“Ben & Jerry’s cannot thrive under the current corporate structure. If this continues, the brand will suffer.”
As a protestor dressed as an angry version of the Magnum ice cream on a stick took to the streets outside the London Stock Exchange where the former Unilever division is listing this morning, Cohen said “tens of thousands of people around the world will continue fighting for its future,” under the new structure.
He added:
“Ben & Jerry’s social mission has always been inseparable from the brand itself, no matter how much Unilever / Magnum have tried to distance the two. That mission is legally protected, yet Unilever / Magnum has relied on heavy-handed tactics to pressure the independent board and erode the principles that make Ben & Jerry’s unique.
“Spinning off the ice cream division doesn’t change that. It’s the same leadership, the same decision-makers, and the same attempt to step away from responsibilities they committed to decades ago.”
The Magnum Ice Cream Company’s long-awaited spinoff from Unilever got underway in Amsterdam today.
Magnum’s stock traded at €12.81 per share in its Amsterdam debut on Monday, implying a market capitalisation of €7.84bn, Reuters reports.
It also listed on London’s stock market this morning, and will join the New York Stock Exchange today too.
Back in China, car sales have fallen for the second month running.
Retail vehicle sales fell about 8% to 2.1 million units in November, according to data published by the China Passenger Car Association today. This shows a 22% slump in sales of gasoline cars, with new-energy vehicle sales rising 4.2% for the month.
Bloomberg calls it “a rare decline in what’s usually the busiest time of the year”. Buyers were deterred by the end of a trade-in subsidy which had supported sales.
“This is a relatively rare situation,” said Cui Dongshu, the association’s secretary general, adding:
“Usually the trend at the end of the year is that the car market should get stronger and stronger from October. But the retail sales in November compared to previous years is unusual.”
UK mortgage rates lowest sine Truss mini-budget of 2022
The average rates on UK two- and five-year fixed mortgages have fallen to their lowest levels since early September 2022.
New data from Moneyfacts shows that average rates are now the lowest since before the Liz Truss government’s mini-Budget, which sent borrowing costs soaring.
Moneyfacts reports that the average mortgage rates on two- and five-year fixed deals fell to 4.86% and 4.91% respectively in November, both now at their lowest points since September 2022. It is the first time the average five-year fixed rate has dropped below 5% since May 2023.
This pulled the Moneyfacts Average Mortgage Rate down to 4.91% month-on-month from 4.99%. Year-on-year the rate is down by 0.53%, from 5.44% in December 2024.
The fall comes as lenders have grown increasingly confident that the Bank of England will cut interest rates next week, from 4% to 3.75%.
Rachel Springall, finance expert at Moneyfacts, says:
“Mortgage rates continue on the downward trend and November was particularly fruitful for fixed rate cuts.
The re-pricing by lenders led to the average five-year fixed rate dropping below 5% for the first time in over two years and sits at its lowest point since before the ‘mini-Budget’ in September 2022, alongside its two-year counterpart.
The average two-year fixed rate noted its biggest monthly fall since August this year, with the five-year noting its largest monthly fall in over six months (March 2025). The activity during November led to a drop in the average shelf-life of a mortgage to just 18 days, and product choice felt a positive rise to breach 7,000 deals.
Trump warns Netflix’s deal for Warner Bros poses competition concerns
Donald Trump has warned there could be competition problems around Netflix’s $83bn (£62bn) deal to buy Warner Brothers’ movie studio and streaming networks.
The US president, speaking at an event in Washington DC on Sunday, confirmed he would be involved personally in the decision about whether the government would approve the takeover.
He said Netflix had a “big market share” and the companies’ combined size “could be a problem”.
Shares in Warner Bros are down 2.15% in pre-market trading, suggesting some doubts are creeping in about whether Netflix will secure its prize.
Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell, says:
“Much attention has been given to Trump’s friendship with Larry Ellison, whose son David had previously spearheaded a deal for Paramount Skydance to buy Warner Bros, which was unsuccessful. There is a lot of talk that Trump seemed to support such a deal at the time, so the president opposing the Netflix acquisition would be double standards.
“Fundamentally, Trump wants to bring some pizzazz back to Hollywood. He wants to resurrect the glitz and glamour of the US film industry, whose star has faded as more productions are made overseas thanks to tax incentives and cheaper costs.
“Netflix will be under pressure to do as much as possible on home soil, so any commitment to do a certain amount of production in the US could help to win Trump over.”
Italy’s Meloni joins calls to scrap EU 2035 ban on petrol cars
Lisa O’Carroll
The Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has joined German chancellor Friderich Merz’s call for the EU’s 2035 ban on the production of new petrol cars to be scrapped.
She wants the deadline to be softened, allowing the continued sale of plug-in hybrid cars.
In a letter, also signed by the leaders of Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria, Meloni argues a hard cut off date will kill off the European car industry, which is struggling against cheaper Chinese rivals to sell and produce cheap electric cars.
The letter warns:
“There is nothing green about an industrial wasteland,”
The European Commission is due on Wednesday to pronounce on the 2035 deadline, a deadline only introduced three years ago, giving the car industry three years to develop electric vehicles.
The EC has already said the letter sent by Merz 10 days ago calling for the 2035 deadline to be softened was received positively, indicating it will soften the deadline.
The Greens have said any roll back on 2035 would be a “gutting” of the Green Deal created by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and signed off in 2022. They are backed by Swedish car makers Volvo and Polestar and the charging industry.
Meloni and leaders of the other countries are calling for “even after 2035, the role of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and fuel cell technology and introduces the recognition of range-extender electric vehicles (ERVs)” to be allowed.
There’s a very calm start to trading in London this morning.
The FTSE 100 index of blue-chip shares has gained just one point, or 0.01%, to 9,668 points.
Consumer goods maker Unilever are the top faller, down 3.7%, after spinning off its ice-cream business (The Magnum Ice Cream Company (TMICC) is up 1.1% in its trading debut).
[Unilever’s fall is basically for technical reasons; it has now lost Magnum’s profits, which were around 10% of Unilever’s full-year earnings in 2024.
Unilever is planning to conduct a share consolidation today, to “maintain comparability” beween its share price and per share metrics (including earnings per share and dividends per share) before and after the demerger. That should take place after the market closes today.]
Aarin Chiekrie, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, says:
The separation makes TMICC the largest ice cream business in the world, with iconic brands like Magnum, Ben & Jerry’s, Wall’s and Cornetto in its portfolio.
It’s already scooped up a 21% share of global ice cream sales, nearly double that of its largest competitor, Froneri. The global ice cream market is forecast to grow by 3-4% annually until at least 2029. TMICC is targeting growth slightly ahead of this pace, up to 5% annually, driven by increased marketing investment, improved distribution channels and market share gains.
There’s a kerfuffle in the mining industry today, where investors have blocked a controversial multi-million pound bonus.
Mning giant Anglo American has dropped plans to seek approval to change its executive directors’ bonus awards, if its planned merger with Canada’s Teck Resources was completed.
Anglo had proposed amending its long-term bonus schemes so that if the merger was completed various executives, including CEO Duncan Wanblad, would be guaranteed a minimum of 62.5% of the shares that can ultimately vest through the incentive plan.
The Times has calculated that at current share prices, that would mean a bonus worth about £8.5m for Wanblad.
But following a backlash from the City, Anglo has withdrawn this proposal from the agenda of the General Meeting of shareholders to be held tomorrow afternoon to vote on whether to approve the Teck takeover.
Anglo insisted this morning it had “engaged extensively with Shareholders” over this proposal adding:
Whilst Shareholders with whom we consulted strongly supported the objectives of Resolution 2 and appreciated the very specific context for the Proposals, they nonetheless raised a number of concerns when considering more general remuneration principles.
Anglo American strongly believes that the proposed amendment represents the most practical way to support the Merger process and the principles and objectives set out in the Circular but, having reflected carefully on Shareholders’ concerns, has therefore decided to withdraw Resolution 2 from the agenda of the General Meeting.
Anglo adds that its remuneration committee will develop an updated Directors’ remuneration policy, so we may not have heard the last about this…
Over in Germany, industrial production rose much more than anticipated last month.
Industrial output increased by 1.8% month-on-month in October, data firm Destatis reported, up from 1.1% in September.
Destatis says:
Within the industrial sector, an increase was recorded across all three main groups: the production of capital goods and consumer goods each rose by 2.1%, and the production of intermediate goods by 0.6%. Outside of the industrial sector, energy production increased by 1.4%.
This pick-up could help Germany’s economy to return to growth in the final quarter of 2025.
China’s yuan-denominated exports to Russia fell for an eighth straight month in November, today’s customs data shows.
Reuters has the details:
Shipments to Russia dropped to 67.71bn yuan (£7.2bn) in November, 5.1% less than the same month last year. Exports plunged 22% in October.
Imports from Russia rose 3.2% on-year, accelerating from October’s 2.5% growth.
Exports to Russia in the January-November period were down 11.2% from the same period last year.
Today’s trade data also shows China’s exports to the European Union grew an annual rate of 14.8% last month.
That could intensify concerns within Europe that China is dumping products in their markets, to avoid tariffs at the US border.
Yesterday, French president Emmanuel Macron said he has threatened China with tariffs if Beijing fails to take steps to reduce its massive trade surplus with the EU.
After returning from a state visit to China, Macron told business daily Les Echos:
I told them that if they don’t react, we Europeans will be forced to take strong measures in the coming months”
Introduction: China’s trade surplus hits $1tn
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.
China’s annual trade surplus has exceeded $1tn for the first time, as the manufacturing powerhouse shrugged off the impact of Donald Trump’s trade war.
New trade data today shows that Chinese factories swelled their sales to non-US markets this year, making up from a sharp drop in shipments to the US.
In November, China’s exports grew 5.9% year-on-year, customs data shows. That reverses a 1.1% contraction in October, and beats analyst forecasts.
And for the first 11 months of the year, China’s annual trade surplus (the difference between what it exported and imported), rose above the $1tn mark for the time (by my maths it was over $1.07tn).
While exports to the US have slowed this year, due to the trade tensions between Washington and Beijing, China has turned to other markets – such as Europe.
Lynn Song, ING’s chief economist for Greater China, explains:
November exports to the US were down -28.6% YoY, a three-month low, bringing the year-to-date growth to -18.9% YoY. It’s likely that November exports have yet to fully reflect the tariff cut, which should feed through in the coming months.
Also, the frontloading effect as US importers ramped up purchases ahead of tariffs will act as a headwind on trade in the coming months. Instead of the US, the beat in November’s data came from an acceleration of exports to the EU.
By product, Song adds, familiar categories continued to see the strongest growth; ships (26.8%), semiconductors (24.7%), and autos (16.7%).
China’s rare earth exports jumped 26.5% month-on-month in November, Reuters reports – that’s the first full month after Xi and Trump agreed to speed up shipment of the critical minerals from the world’s largest refiner.
Soya bean imports are also poised for their best-ever year, as Chinese buyers, who had shunned US purchases for the majority of this year, stepped up purchases from American growers in addition to large purchases from Latin America.
The agenda
