As shown in the accompanying table, it was a broadly negative week for global financial markets. US markets struggled this week, with major indices closing lower as investors reacted to a combination of persistent inflation data and ongoing trade policy concerns.

This morning, UK headline CPI reading slowed from 3.0% in January to 2.8% in February, while core CPI inflation, which excludes volatile items such as food and energy, slowed to 3.5% from 3.7%.  However, despite this cooling, we expect inflation to speed up again in the coming months due to rising energy prices and the soon-to-be increase to employer national insurance contributions and minimum wage as this is likely be passed on to consumers.

This Debt Awareness Week (24th – 30th March), WEALTH at work – a leading financial wellbeing, retirement and workplace savings specialist, are encouraging employers to support employees to tackle money issues and build a saving safety net.

There is just over a month left to check and fill any gaps in National Insurance (NI) records going back to 2006 to boost State Pension entitlement. As a minimum of 35 years of NI is needed to receive the full State Pension payment, anyone who thinks that they may have any gaps in their records should check their entitlement now so they can consider filling these before 5 April.