FirstFT: Kwarteng leaves IMF meetings early

UK chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has left Washington early to address the country’s economic crisis as Prime Minister Liz Truss prepares to rip up the government’s “mini” Budget in a desperate attempt to rebuild market confidence and save her embryonic premiership.

Kwarteng, who was attending IMF meetings in the US, dashed to the airport last night to catch the last flight. Expectations are rising in London that he will announce a U-turn on the £43bn package of unfunded tax cuts he unveiled last month.

The chancellor spent two days in Washington, where he heard the IMF and other finance ministers recommend that he reverse the tax cuts quickly before more financial damage was done.

A source close to Kwarteng said the chancellor’s hasty departure was not the same as the Greek finance minister leaving G20 talks in 2011. “This is a completely different scale,” the person said. “It’s all about the medium-term fiscal plans and a wide range of challenges.”

Admitting that UK financial markets were “turbulent”, the source said the chancellor’s exit was not “panic” but was necessary to sell the plan to MPs and the public before it is announced on October 31.

In Westminster, Conservative MPs have been questioning whether Truss can survive a U-turn — and who could replace her.

• Opinion: Britain’s economic credibility on the international stage has noticeably plummeted — and its only way out is backwards, writes Chris Giles.

Thanks for reading FirstFT Europe/Africa. Here is the rest of today’s news — Jennifer

Five more stories in the news

1. Germany pushes back over energy bailout criticism In an interview, Robert Habeck, deputy chancellor, has hit out at critics of the €200bn energy support package Berlin unveiled last month, denying it was “selfish” and insisting it would help protect the whole European economy.

“We’re not being selfish — we’re trying to stabilise an economy at the heart of Europe” — Robert Habeck

2. Chris Rokos profits from UK interest rate bets The billionaire trader, whose Rokos Capital Management is one of the world’s biggest macro hedge funds with $14.5bn in assets, has profited from the crisis gripping financial markets, according to people familiar with his positioning.

3. Kherson leader seeks Russia’s help to evacuate civilians Vladimir Saldo, the Russia-installed head of the occupied Ukrainian region, has appealed to Moscow for help evacuating residents, signalling that Kyiv’s counteroffensive on the southern front line is picking up steam.

• Diplomacy: French president Emmanuel Macron has faced criticism from within Nato for saying he would not respond with nuclear weapons if Russia used its own arsenal against Ukraine or in “the region”, breaking with the “strategic ambiguity” policy.

4. Delays at US custody bank exacerbated UK pension sell-off Custody lender Northern Trust was overwhelmed by margin calls during the gilt market turmoil, hampering pension funds’ ability to raise cash, according to people involved in the trades.

5. January 6 committee votes to subpoena Donald Trump The congressional committee investigating last year’s attack on the US Capitol has voted unanimously to issue a subpoena to the former president, whom members have accused of being responsible for the violence that day.

“He is the one person at the centre of the story of what happened on January 6, so we want to hear from him” — Bennie Thompson, Democratic committee chair

Have you kept up with the news this week? Take our quiz to find out.

The days ahead

BoE bond-buying scheme deadline The UK central bank’s emergency government bond-buying programme is set to end today. Governor Andrew Bailey has ruled out extending the scheme, but some policymakers privately signalled to bankers that they were prepared to prolong it.

London’s Battersea Power station reopens The iconic 1930s building reopens in a new guise as a retail, leisure and residential building following a £9bn renovation. Apple is taking a few floors for its British workforce.

US bank earnings This week closes with a rush of third-quarter results from Citi, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley, which are likely to fuel concerns about a US recession. Analysts expect that the largest lenders will set aside more than $4bn to cover bad loan losses.

Economic indicators The eurozone publishes August trade figures while France has September’s consumer price index. Across the Atlantic, the US commerce department releases September retail sales, which rose 0.3 per cent in August from the month before. (FT, WSJ)

Sports tournaments Saudi Arabia hosts the LIV Golf Invitational at the Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in Jeddah today. On Sunday, the Twenty20 World Cup cricket tournament begins in Geelong, Australia.

China’s 20th Communist party congress The Chinese Communist party begins its five-yearly congress on Sunday. Xi Jinping is set to be reaffirmed as the party’s leader. Here’s what to expect.

What else we’re reading

How to tax (a guide for governments) An old French saying has it that the art of taxation is “to pluck the goose so as to obtain the largest number of feathers with the least hissing”. Tim Harford outlines lessons on what really works from more than 300 years of history.

Qatar counts down to World Cup In just over a month, Qatar will host the most prestigious event in international football, capping a journey that began in 2010 when the gas-rich country won the host rights in a vote that is now widely discredited. Can the wealthy gas nation deliver?

Kazakhstan ‘chips away’ at Russia reliance Moscow is confronting a new reality: across central Asia and the Caucasus, countries are seeking to wean themselves off their dependency on Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The metaverse may devour Meta Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is so in love with the promise of the metaverse that he rebranded the company and bet his business on it. But it is not clear that ordinary people know what it means, writes John Thornhill.

‘Women will not be equals in the workplace until the economics of childcare are worked out’ A global survey of FT readers heard from more than 100 parents around the world about the difficulties of juggling careers and childcare and how to improve childcare provision. Calls for policymakers to help with childcare costs topped their suggestions.

Crypto

Castle Craig treats all kinds of addictions, from alcoholism to compulsive gambling. But in 2016, it became the first rehab clinic to diagnose and treat crypto addiction. Since then, it has worked with almost 250 patients, and the numbers are growing every year.