If you find this podcast useful please give it a rating and review on iTunes by clicking here
5 Things You Need To Know, Today, on Thursday 2nd March 2023
5. Coffee chain Pret A Manger will give staff their third pay rise in 12 months, following other firms in boosting wages amid a labour shortage.
Pret said the rise - to begin in April - amounts to a 19% bump in year-on-year basic pay for shop staff.
4. The government made £2.4bn by selling mortgages from collapsed lenders to investment firms, a report funded by Martin Lewis has suggested.
Some 200,000 mortgages were sold to firms which cannot offer new deals. Many homeowners are stuck on high rates as other lenders will not accept them.
3. House prices have fallen for the sixth month in a row and dropped 1.1% in the year up to last month, according to one of the UK's biggest mortgage lenders.
House price data from Nationwide building society showed it was the first annual decline since June 2020.
2. Interest rates may need to go up again to slow the cost of living down, Bank of England boss Andrew Bailey has said.
Mr Bailey said raising rates higher may be "appropriate" to control inflation but said nothing was decided yet. The next rate decision is on 23 March and Mr Bailey said the Bank would assess the latest data before deciding.
1. British factory activity contracted last month at the slowest pace since July and 60% of manufacturers expect output to rise in the coming 12 months, reflecting cooling inflation pressure, a survey showed.
The UK monthly manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose to 49.3 in February from 47.0 in the previous month but still below the 50 threshold for growth.