All the day’s economic and financial news, as Steven Mnuchin promises the biggest tax reforms and tax cuts ever * Latest: Mnuchin reveals tax cut plans * Mnuchin: Biggest tax cut in US history * Full announcement due at 1.3pm New York (6.30pm BST) * Introduction: Trump tax plan drives markets to record highs * Trump’s tax plans explained * Is UK data being leaked? 4.05pm BST Over in Greece, as long-stalled bailout negotiations finally resume, prime minister Alexis Tsipras has been causing ripples warning that while parliament may legislate creditor-demanded reforms, the painful measures may never be implemented if the country isn’t given debt relief. From Athens our correspondent Helena Smith reports: With the timing of a maestro, Greece’s leftist leader used the first day of reactivated bailout talks to deliver a stern message: without promised debt relief the pension cuts and tax hikes Athens has now agreed to as part of a bigger package to unlock further emergency loans will never be enforced. In a live TV interview aired late Tuesday, Tsipras said it was Greece’s right as “as sovereign government” to reverse the measures (the equivalent of 2 % of GDP and due to be enacted as of 1.1.2019) if lenders didn’t also honour pledges to offer medium-term debt relief that would allow the economy to breathe. Predicting that the progress review would be completed in time for the next eurogroup on May 22 – averting the prospect of crisis being replayed when Greece is called to meet €7.5bn of maturing debt in July – Tsipras argued that the review was no ordinary report card but part of a much broader agreement that would allow the country to finally recover from eight years of crisis. While Athens had been forced to make concessions, it had also won the ability to enforce “counter measures” to offset losses when Greece hit budget targets and secured valuable labour rights that the IMF had wanted to abolish. “We must not see this review as a review that only concerns the bailout programme. It is the most critical review. Why? Because we have a comprehensive agreement,” he said in the interview. 3.44pm BST Unlike the American Petroleum Institute figures out on Tuesday, the latest official figures on crude stocks show a surprise fall in inventories. The API said stocks rose last week by 897,000 barrels but figures from the Energy Information Administration show a weekly fall of 3.64m barrels to 528.7m. This is higher than the forecast fall of 1.7m barrels. Continue reading...
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