Friday newspaper round-up: Wilko, Bank of England, Oil prices

(Sharecast News) - Budget homeware chain Wilko was yesterday teetering on the brink of collapse, putting around 12,000 jobs at risk. The retailer, which has around 400 stores, said that it was primed to appoint administrators after struggling to find a financial lifeline. In recent years the High Street has been struggling with painful cost increases, while shoppers' budgets have been restricted by historically high inflation levels. - Daily Mail Five savings providers have announced they are upping easy-access deals following the Bank of England's base rate hike. Skipton Building Society and Nationwide Building Society are among those upping their variable rates in response to the Bank of England adding 0.25 percentage points on to base rate to take it to 5.25 per cent earlier today. HSBC has boosted rates on its easy-access accounts, Isas and children's accounts, while First Direct bank has also upped rates across its easy access accounts and Isa. - Daily Mail

Oil prices rose by more than 2 per cent yesterday after Saudi Arabia warned that it would extend cuts to production in conjunction with Russia into September and possibly beyond. Saudi Arabia said it would extend a voluntary oil output cut of one million barrels per day for another month to include September, adding it could be extended beyond that or deepened. Its daily production is expected to be about 9 million barrels in September. - The Times

Transparency campaigners have called for thinktanks to be more open about their funding sources, after it emerged that some of Britain's most influential ones received more than $1m (£787,000) from from donations in the US in 2021. They include the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), regarded as an inspiration for policies adopted by the Liz Truss government, and Policy Exchange - a conservative thinktank used as a platform by ministers to trail new measures and which recently incubated hardline immigration plans. - Guardian