Is The Economy On The Up?
Newscast
BBC
4.3 • 6.6K Ratings
🗓️ 18 December 2025
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, the Bank of England has cut interest rates to the lowest level since early 2023.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves calls it "good news for families with mortgages and businesses with loans" - but says there's "more to do". Meanwhile, the Bank now expects no economic growth at the end of this year. Faisal is with Tristan in the studio to talk it through.
And, tension is still building between the US and Venezuela. President Donald Trump has ordered "a total and complete" blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela - a move denounced by Caracas as "warmongering threats". Tristan is joined by his global story host Asma Khalid and Vanessa Buschschlüter Latin America and Caribbean Editor for the BBC News website.
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New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bbc.in/4guXgXd Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. The presenter was Tristan Redman. It was made by Jack Maclaren and Jem Westgate. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:05.9 | Faisal, hello. |
| 0:07.2 | Hello. |
| 0:07.7 | Hello. |
| 0:08.5 | This is my first time presenting newscast, Faisal. |
| 0:11.8 | The last time I was in this studio was for Adam's children in need, |
| 0:17.5 | 25-hour podcast-a-thon, where we did a whole hour conversation about ghosts. |
| 0:23.9 | Wow. |
| 0:24.4 | All killer, no filler. |
| 0:25.7 | I'm hoping this episode might be a little bit more succinct. |
| 0:28.6 | It's not going to be 25 hours. |
| 0:30.3 | It's going to be very succinct. |
| 0:32.1 | Minutes, hopefully. |
| 0:33.4 | Have you ever seen a ghost, Vicer? |
| 0:35.7 | Oh, my. |
| 0:36.7 | Not to my knowledge. |
| 0:38.9 | I'd like to think I'd, I'd like to believe it if I saw it. But sadly, I've had no ghosty, I'm saying this now, it's going to happen tonight, isn't it? I'm just, I can hear myself thinking, you want to believe. I can hear the ghost in this building thinking, we'll get him tonight. but no I've not had |
| 0:55.4 | I mean I obviously when I was about |
| 0:57.2 | when I was a tiny kid of about |
| 0:59.4 | 10, I thought I saw some weird stuff, but probably was just my brother or sister messing |
| 1:05.6 | around trying to wind me up. |
| 1:06.7 | Yeah. |
... |
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