United Kingdom in February 2026: the most important developments in economy
In the United Kingdom in February 2026, the central economic event was the Bank of England's decision on 5 February to keep its main interest rate at 3.75%, citing inflation above its target. The Monetary Policy Committee voted narrowly to hold and signaled that a cut was likely. A Reuters poll of economists expected a cut in March, while the Governor later called a March cut an open question as tariff worries weighed on stock markets. UK house prices reached a record high, the FTSE 100 hit a record, and energy bills for millions of households were set to fall by around 7% from April. On 23 February President Donald Trump threatened new tariffs, and the UK government said nothing was off the table, including retaliation, if the US reneged on existing agreements.
Company news covered several sectors. BP suspended its share buyback on 10 February to reduce debt, the first major oil company to do so, and its shares fell by more than 4%. Shell was reported to be considering the sale of stakes in major LNG projects, including an Australian project valued at up to $24 billion. HSBC reported annual profits above expectations, raised its targets and saw its shares reach a record high. Aston Martin said it would cut 20% of its staff, citing US tariffs. US manager Nuveen agreed to buy Schroders in a deal valued at 9.9 billion pounds, and Zurich agreed a sweetened 8 billion pound bid for Beazley. Rio Tinto and Glencore ended merger talks on 5 February, and Rio Tinto later said it was shifting its focus to copper.
Documents from the Jeffrey Epstein files led to resignations and frozen deals. A Dubai chief executive and a senior Goldman Sachs lawyer stepped down, and Canadian and UK finance groups halted new deals with DP World over its chief executive's emails.
The government said it would extend online safety rules to AI chatbots after the Grok controversy, and that tech firms must remove intimate deepfake images within 48 hours or face being blocked. On 24 February the UK, with Australia and Canada, announced its largest sanctions package yet on Russia.
by WorldBrief & Maksim Micheliov | AI-generated summary
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