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Business leaders have warned that Britain is entering 2026 amid a sharp economic downturn in the private sector, after companies "put the brakes on" investment and hiring before the autumn budget.

In a gloomy snapshot after months of tax speculation, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said private sector output was on track to fall in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Suggesting the budget did little to brighten bosses' moods, the lobby group's latest growth indicator showed falling activity was reported across all sectors of the economy in the three months to December.

Separate figures from the jobs website Adzuna showed the number of UK job vacancies shrank in November for a fifth month running. Reporting a 6.4% month-on-month slide in new openings, the jobs website said 2025 had been "one of the toughest years for jobseekers since the pandemic".

The chancellor's tax and spending statement on 26 November does not appear to have kickstarted business optimism. According to the CBI, private firms are predicting economic activity will fall further in the next three months, continuing a run of negative forecasts that began in late 2024.

Alpesh Paleja, deputy chief economist at the CBI, said: "Uncertainty ahead of November's budget put the brakes on key spending decisions and big projects, choking up pipelines of work. The latest growth indicator suggests that the alleviation of this uncertainty hasn't materially boosted activity.

"Our latest surveys round off a disappointing year for private sector growth. They mark a continuation of the headwinds that have plagued businesses over the past 12 months: tepid demand conditions with households cautious around spending, and strong cost pressures squeezing margins."

Compiled from a survey of more than 900 companies between 24 November – the week of Rachel Reeves's budget – and 11 December, the CBI's snapshot revealed a broad-based downturn across the private sector.

The reading on its monthly growth indicator fell to -30%, from -27% in November. The weighted balance score is the difference between the percentage of firms who expect activity to rise over the next three months and respondents anticipating a decline.

The Bank of England warned last week that Britain's economy was on track to record zero growth in the final three months of 2025, after output unexpectedly shrank in October, with consumers holding back on spending before the budget.

Businesses are calling on the Labour government to work with industry to increase its support for companies grappling with high energy costs, while also working to simplify the tax system as part of ministers' mission to boost economic growth.

Andrew Hunter, the co-founder of Adzuna, said the budget had added to end-of-year uncertainty for employers.

He said: "2025 has been one of the toughest environments for jobseekers across almost every corner of the market, particularly among people entering the market for the first time. One glimmer of light is that wage growth continues to counteract the vacancy slump."

Adzuna data shows the number of UK job vacancies slid by 15% in November compared with the same month a year earlier, at a time when many employers would usually take on extra staff for Christmas.

Official figures released this month show the UK unemployment rate hit a four-year high of 5.1% in the three months to October.

Graduate jobs have seen one of the sharpest falls over the past 12 months, marking an annual slide in vacancies of almost 45%, Adzuna said. Recent reports have shown young people are being hit hard by the rise in unemployment.

The decision by companies to cut the size of their workforce by using artificial intelligence is seen as one of the reasons for the fall in vacancies in entry-level roles, three years on since the launch of ChatGPT.

However, wage growth continues to outpace inflation, Adzuna found. The average advertised salary rose by 7.7.% annually to reach £42,687 in November, with public-sector wages growing almost twice as fast as those in the private sector. Salaries in the IT sector have risen by 12.7% over the past year, making it the best-paid sector.

Source: GUARDIAN

The yen languished near a record low to the euro on Monday, after Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda stuck to his usual cautious rhetoric following an interest rate hike on Friday.

The Japanese currency traded near an 11-month trough versus the U.S. dollar and just shy of a 17-month low on the Aussie.

A warning of possible currency intervention on Monday had little immediate effect on the market. Japan's top currency diplomat, Atsushi Mimura, said he was "concerned" about "one-sided and sharp" foreign exchange moves, and cautioned that officials "will take appropriate actions against excessive moves."

The BOJ raised the policy rate by a quarter point to a three-decade peak of 0.75% on Friday, in a clearly telegraphed move. The accompanying statement signalled a readiness to continue tightening policy, but Ueda, at his news conference, stressed the timing and pace of further hikes depended on incoming economic data.

The lack of any hawkish hints sent the yen tumbling 1.3% versus the euro, 1.4% against the greenback and 1.5% against the Aussie, even as it triggered a broad selloff in Japanese government bonds that sent the 10-year yield (JP10YTN=JBTC) - which moves inversely to the price - soaring past the symbolic 2% mark to the highest since 1999.

"While the BOJ statement noted that real yields remain 'significantly low' - potentially signalling further tightening ahead - Governor Ueda's press conference offered little new insight, reiterating a data-dependent approach," Tony Sycamore, an analyst at IG, wrote in a client note.

"The absence of clearer guidance on the pace of future hikes disappointed markets, triggering yen selling."

A decisive break above 158 yen per U.S. dollar would open the way to the high for the year from January at around 158.87, he said.

The U.S. dollar edged down 0.1% to 157.56 yenon Monday, but remained close to last month's high of 157.90.

The euro eased 0.1% to 184.51 yen, staying within touching distance of Friday's record peak at 184.75. The single currency was flat at $1.1714.

The Aussie weakened slightly to 104.20 yen, but was not far from the 104.39 yen mark reached earlier this month for the first time since July of last year. It rose 0.1% to $0.6616.

The Aussie-yen pair "still has fundamental support from solid risk sentiment and more recently, by wider interest rate differentials between Australian and Japanese ten-year government bond yields," Commonwealth Bank of Australia analysts wrote in a client note, forecasting a rise to 109 yen per Australian dollar by March.

Source: Reuters

South Korea's exports continued to expand in the first weeks of December, supported by strong semiconductor and wireless communication equipment demand, though the overall pace of gains slowed as the country faces higher tariffs from the US.

The value of shipments adjusted for differences in the number of working days increased 3.6% from a year earlier in the first 20 days of December, according to data released Monday by the customs office. That compared with a revised 13% gain reported for the full month of November.

Unadjusted shipments also gained 6.8%, while overall imports added 0.7%, resulting in a trade surplus of $3.8 billion.

Semiconductor exports climbed almost 42%, extending a recovery that's been fueled by artificial intelligence and data center demand. Shipments of wireless communication equipment also increased nearly 18%. Still, auto exports fell 13%, and petrochemicals showed weakness tied to higher input costs and US protectionist measures.

Seoul reached a landmark tariff deal with Washington in late October after three months of negotiations, capping US duties on Korean goods at 15%. Tariffs on Korean autos and auto parts were also retroactively lowered to 15% as of Nov. 1, following the publication of an official notice in the Federal Register earlier this month.

While the deal lowered duties from levels President Donald Trump announced in the spring, rates remain well above the levels the country enjoyed under a previous free trade agreement.

The trade report comes as the Korean won plunged more than 8% against the dollar so far in the second half of 2025, stoking concerns about rising inflation. Both core and headline consumer prices are now above the Bank of Korea's 2% target, and the central bank has warned that prolonged currency weakness could add further pressure on import costs.

By destination, exports to China rose 6.5%, while those to the US slipped 1.7%. Shipments to Taiwan and Vietnam climbed 9.6% and 20.4%, respectively.

Source: Bloomberg Europe

Australia will require natural gas exporters to reserve as much as a quarter of new production for domestic use, as the major supplier seeks to tackle high prices and a forecast shortfall on its more populated east coast.

The policy, which is set to commence in 2027, will affect supply contracts signed from Monday and won't affect any existing agreements, Energy Minister Chris Bowen said Monday in Canberra. The final percentage to be reserved will be between 15% and 25% and finalized after a consultation next year, he said.

"From today any new contracts will be covered by the regime," Bowen said. "Gas is important to calibrate and support renewables."

Australia is the world's third-largest shipper of liquefied natural gas, but its 10 export terminals are all located in western or northern areas. Meanwhile, demand for the fossil fuel on the more populated east coast is expected to exceed supply from 2028, the Australian Energy Market Operator forecasts.

Western Australia, which has some of the biggest LNG plants but no pipeline links to the rest of the country, already requires producers to reserve as much as 15% of output for local use.

Source: Bloomberg Europe

India's Adani Group will be "aggressive" in building out artificial intelligence data centers as well as the energy infrastructure that will run them, potentially setting up nuclear power plants, the youngest son of Asia's second-richest man said.

"Data centers is very, very big. What we had assumed we would do in 2030, we have already crossed, and the amount of demand that's coming in keeps rising," Jeet Adani told Nikkei Asia, adding that a mix of low costs and shifts in energy regulations gave India a "natural advantage" when it comes to building out AI data centers.

The group, which is building such infrastructure in India for tech giants such as Google, sees itself as "one of the biggest investors" in the Indian nuclear energy space, said Adani, who oversees the digital and airports divisions. A law opening up the closely controlled sector to private companies was passed by the country's parliament last week.

Adani is among the four family members -- brother Karan and cousins Pranav and Sagar -- who are expected to take over the sprawling media-to-ports conglomerate when his 63-year-old father Gautam retires.

Adani was speaking ahead of the start of operations at Mumbai's newly constructed airport. He said the group is looking to invest about 1 trillion rupees ($11 billion) over the next five years into the unit to support a series of new airports and upgrades to existing facilities.

The group's wider infrastructure gambit includes an investment of up to $5 billion into building out Google's AI data center projects in India. In October, Google said it was going to invest $15 billion to build such facilities in India over the next five years.

The Adani Group is looking to eventually build AI data centers larger than 1 gigawatt in capacity across the country, including in cities like Vizag, Navi Mumbai, Noida and Hyderabad, Adani said.

The company will only focus on providing the infrastructure and other facilities for the data centers.

"We're not in the neo-cloud business," Adani said. "Let's say Google is getting in their TPUs (tensor processing units) in Vizag. We won't invest in the said TPUs."

On the energy side, Adani said the group is ready to use its vast renewables capacity to support the power-hungry data centers. Subsidiary Adani Green Energy is already the country's largest renewable energy company, with expansive solar and wind power generation capabilities.

"We have the ability to give as much renewable electricity as any of the hyperscalers would want," Adani said. "We have the ability to develop [infrastructure] fast, and develop [them] modularly."

However, Adani said a foray into nuclear energy would be closely tied to the demand for power from the data centers.

"Nuclear [energy] is something that we have been very, very actively looking at," Adani said. "I think it was tabooed for too long."

The company will look to build and own the power plants, but would outsource the reactors, he added.

India's parliament passed the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) bill on Friday, which will replace current laws on atomic power and increase privatization of the sector by allowing Indian companies to build, own or operate nuclear plants and reactors, among other things.

The new law is aimed at helping expand India's nuclear power generation from the current 8 GW to 100 GW by 2047. Currently, only 3% of India's electricity comes from nuclear power.

The Adani Group's data center moves parallel investments by India's biggest conglomerates including Reliance Industries and the Tata Group, which are also set to build out AI data centers in collaboration with the likes of Canada's Brookfield and U.S.-based TPG.

India has 1.4 GW of data center capacity under construction and another 5 GW in the planning stage, with current operational capacity at 1.4 GW, according to a report from Macquarie Research.

"If India plays its cards right, it can easily convince the hyperscalers to build 10 GW of data center capacity in the next five years," Adani said. "I see [demand for] 50 GW of renewable electricity coming just from the data centers."

Source: Asia_Nikkei

Signage is pictured in the main lobby of GSK offices in London, Britain, February 20, 2025. REUTERS/Chris J. Ratcliffe/File Photo

South Korea's Samsung Biologics (207940.KS), said on Monday it is acquiring its first U.S. drug production facility from GSK (GSK.L),for $280 million to respond to long-term U.S. market demand.

The company's U.S. unit, Samsung Biologics America, is acquiring a 100% stake in Human Genome Sciences Inc of Rockville, Maryland, the South Korean contract drug manufacturer said in a statement.

Samsung Biologics plans additional investments to expand the site's capacity, currently a combined 60,000 liters of drug substance capacity, and to upgrade technology, it said.

It added that the acquisition value may change when the deal closes, likely around the end of the first quarter of 2026.

South Korea's Celltrion (068270.KS), opens new tab is also planning to produce drugs in the United States, where the Trump administration has threatened to levy tariffs on pharmaceuticals.

Under a deal with the United States, tariffs on U.S. imports of South Korean pharmaceuticals will be no greater than 15%, while generic drugs will be tariff-free.

Samsung Biologics shares were down 0.4% on Monday, lagging the wider market's (.KS11), opens new tab 2% gain.

Source: Reuters