Monday newspaper round-up: Tax rises, US billionaires, national debt

(Sharecast News) - The prospect of looming tax rises and a fall in business investment will restrict the UK's economic growth rate next year to less than 1%, according to a health check of the economy by a leading consultancy. With less than four weeks before Rachel Reeves delivers her budget on 26 November, the EY Item Club has downgraded Britain's growth for next year, indicating that the economy will continue to expand at a sluggish pace, limiting tax receipts and the chancellor's financial room for manoeuvre. - Guardian The collective wealth of the top 10 US billionaires has soared by $698bn in the past year, according to a new report from Oxfam America published on Monday on the growing wealth divide. The report warns that Trump administration policies risk driving US inequality to new heights, but points out that both Republican and Democratic administrations have exacerbated the US's growing wealth gap. - Guardian

The UK's national debt is growing at the fastest rate of any rich country as a prolonged borrowing binge threatens to push the country into a "doom loop". Debt has close to tripled from 2005 to 2025, analysis by Oxford Economics shows, outpacing increases in any other advanced economy. A failure by successive governments to live within their means has left the UK with a £2.9tn mountain of debt, which is almost as large as the entire economy and costs over £100bn a year in interest payments. - Telegraph

More than £1 trillion of government spending is expected to push economic growth higher than previously expected this year but the impetus will fizzle out in 2026, according to a leading independent think tank. The UK economy is on course to expand by 1.5 per cent in 2025, partly thanks to a rise in public spending, the EY Item Club said as it raised its forecast for the year. - The Times

More than half of all adults in Britain are using ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence platforms to make financial decisions, according to a study that reveals how quickly AI has come to influence consumer behaviour. Financial advice is the most commonly cited reason for using AI, with 56 per cent of people citing it, ahead of 29 per cent for help on emails or work documents, 20 per cent for recipes, 17 per cent for medical advice and 14 per cent for career tips. - The Times