What's going on?

Data out on Thursday showed that UK economic growth was slower-than-expected last quarter, so the country might want to issue an urgent plea.

What does this mean?

The UK�s been battling shortages of, well, just about everything recently, which pushed up prices last quarter and dented consumer spending. And businesses weren�t confident splashing the cash either: their investment last quarter was well below levels from before the pandemic. That�s partly why the economy grew by a weaker-than-expected 1.3% last quarter, leaving it 2.1% below pre-pandemic levels � a bigger shortfall than in many other developed countries.

The Bank of England (BoE) might be feeling vindicated: last week it made a surprise decision not to raise interest rates, and Thursday�s data suggests that was a good call. But the BoE�s got another tricky choice ahead: raising rates next month should cool rising prices, but could end up slowing economic growth even more.

Why should I care?

The bigger picture: America could be next.
America�s dealing with sky-high inflation too: data out this week showed that US prices of goods and services rose by 6.2% last month versus the same time last year � the fastest annual rise in over thirty years. The issue is wages aren�t rising at the same rate, with Americans finding their hard-earned cash isn’t going quite as far as it used to. And if consumer spending gets impacted, the US economy might end up following Britain�s lead � which means slower economic growth going forward.

Zooming out: Steeling the show.
Rising prices are good news for some: a boom in steel prices helped ArcelorMittal � one of the world�s largest steel producers � report its highest quarterly profit in 13 years on Thursday. And it�s spreading the joy to investors: it�s upping its share buyback program by $1 billion, which � by reducing the supply of shares out there � should send the price of the remaining ones higher.