{"id":591505,"date":"2026-05-19T00:19:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T00:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/591505\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T00:19:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T00:19:31","slug":"as-it-happened-imf-lifts-uk-gdp-and-stocks-reverse-losses-as-bonds-warned-of-correction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/591505\/","title":{"rendered":"As it happened: IMF lifts UK GDP and stocks reverse losses as bonds warned of &#8216;correction&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\tMonday 18 May 2026 6:28 am<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Updated:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tMonday 18 May 2026 3:53 pm\n\t<\/p>\n<p><img width=\"742\" height=\"495\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Keir-Starmer-speech-11-may-e1778579013420.jpg\" class=\"media \" alt=\"Keir Starmer delivering a speech on May 11, addressing political issues, in a formal setting with an audience.\" fetchpriority=\"high\" loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"sync\"  \/>\t\tStarmer&#8217;s premiership is in the hot seat.\t<\/p>\n<p>Welcome back to the City AM liveblog.<\/p>\n<p>The bond market is taking a breathe after mountains of pressure on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The UK\u2019s borrowing costs hit their highest since 2008, charging to 5.17 per cent during one part of the day\u2019s trading session. This was topped once more on Monday morning, but since then yields have eased back slightly and sterling is rallying against the pound.<\/p>\n<p>Friday\u2019s woes came as inflationary warnings from the Iran war renewed, whilst the UK faced a specific political premium over fears of a change in Prime Minister to someone with looser fiscal policies. <\/p>\n<p>Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is viewed as one of the top candidates to loosen the Treasury\u2019s purse strings and he launched his bid to return to Parliament on Thursday, rattling the market.<\/p>\n<p>The pound fell 0.3 per cent against the dollar to around $1.336 on Friday, following another steep fall on Thursday after Burnham\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPressure continues to build on Prime Minister Keir Starmer following Labour\u2019s poor local election performance and his dismal \u2018reset\u2019 speech\u2026\u201d David Morrison, senior market analyst at Trade Nation, said.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a class=\"read-more__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cityam.com\/ftse-100-live-stocks-to-dip-ahead-of-interest-rate-decision\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Bank of England Live: Interest rates held as hawks warn of \u2018highly uncertain\u2019 energy prices<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe UK gilts market remains sensitive to the possibility of a more left-leaning leadership approach that could result in increased borrowing and public spending.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere, the stalemate in the Middle East is set to come to a head after President Donald Trump warned the \u201cclock is ticking\u201d on talks to end the war with Iran.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey better get moving, FAST, or there won\u2019t be anything left of them,\u201d the President wrote on <a href=\"https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/@realDonaldTrump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Truth Social<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The message was a stark call back to Trump\u2019s\u00a0threat that a \u201cwhole civilisation\u201d would die\u00a0unless Iran agreed to a peace deal. This came shortly before the announced peace deal in April, but efforts since then have since waned.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll be bringing you all the latest on this and more.<\/p>\n<p>Jump straight to\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a class=\"read-more__link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cityam.com\/ftse-100-live-stocks-to-sink-oil-climbs-as-trump-vows-to-finish-job-in-iran\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">FTSE 100 Live: Dow Jones joins City in red; Oil soars on Iran war fears<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The liveblog has ended.<\/p>\n<p>No liveblog updates yet.<\/p>\n<p>Load more<\/p>\n<p>\t\tSimilarly tagged content: <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tSections\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tCategories\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tPeople &amp; Organisations\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Monday 18 May 2026 6:28 am \u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Updated:\u00a0 Monday 18 May 2026 3:53 pm Starmer&#8217;s premiership is in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1340,4185,38895,53415,84,14137,177295,141,4229,1294,5297,12897,2016,184991,164671,105842,42027,105843,105844,108330,152813,202376,105845,152814,152815,152816,152817,152818,152819,152152,585,164332,126979,420,53651,467,32120,632,163868,166434,50,2987,20987,164673,174781,164674,159256,581,1445,51544,2023,2122,6635,56,190886,1893,735,54,55],"class_list":["post-591505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-banking","tag-bond-market","tag-bond-markets","tag-borrowing-costs","tag-business","tag-capital-markets","tag-digital-markets","tag-donald-trump","tag-economics","tag-economy","tag-financial-markets","tag-ftse","tag-ftse-100","tag-ftse-100-boss","tag-ftse-100-live","tag-ftse-150","tag-ftse-250","tag-ftse-350","tag-ftse-aim","tag-ftse-all-share","tag-ftse-fledgling","tag-ftse-main-market","tag-ftse-shares","tag-ftse-small-cap","tag-ftse-stocks","tag-ftse-trading","tag-ftse-update","tag-ftse100","tag-ftse250","tag-gilt-yields","tag-iran","tag-iran-conflict","tag-iran-crisis","tag-keir-starmer","tag-london-stock-exchange","tag-markets","tag-markets-live","tag-middle-east","tag-middle-east-conflict","tag-middle-east-war","tag-news","tag-oil","tag-oil-and-gas","tag-oil-and-gas-services","tag-oil-crisis","tag-oil-major","tag-oil-majors","tag-oil-prices","tag-rachel-reeves","tag-reeves","tag-retail","tag-ryanair","tag-trump-administration","tag-uk","tag-uk-borrowing-costs","tag-uk-economy","tag-uk-government","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}