Money latest: Sainsbury's running Nectar points scheme; chocolate is a superfood - if you buy these bars (2024)

Tech giant Apple has apologised after an advert for its new iPad model prompted outrage.

The ad promoting the thinnest-ever iPad shows creative tools including cameras, books, paint cans and musical instruments being crushed in an industrial press.

But many, including celebrities like Hugh Grant, decried the crushing of artistic objects.

In a statement released to Ad Age, Tor Myhren, Apple's vice president of marketing communications, said: "Creativity is in ourDNAat Apple, and it's incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world.

"Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the mark with this video, and we're sorry."

By Daniel Binns, business reporter

The FTSE 100 has been propelled to another record high this morning after official figures showed that the UK is now out of recession.

The index, of the London Stock Exchange's 100 most valuable companies, is up more than 0.5% and hit an intraday (during the day) high of 8,433 points earlier.

The score is based on a calculation of the total value of the shares on the index.

It comes after officials revealed that gross domestic product (GDP) in the UK grew by a better-than-expected 0.6% during the first three months of the year.

However, commentators said investors had been buoyed more by the rising cost of metals, along with suggestions from the Bank of England yesterday that interest rates could be cut soon.

Russ Mould, from investment platform AJ Bell, said: "Given its international horizons, this has little to do with the UK's better-than-expected GDP growth and is largely being driven by strength in the resources space where higher metals prices and the promise of M&A [mergers and acquisitions] are helping to stoke share prices.

"The next key test of the index's new-found vim and vigour will likely come next week in the form of US inflation figures. Investors have broadly accepted rate cuts won't be as deep or come as soon as would have been anticipated at the start of the year. However, any signs inflation is proving much more stubborn than predicted would still represent a shock to the system for financial markets."

Among the movers on Friday is UK-based mining firm Anglo American.

Its shares are up almost 2% after reports that industry giant Rio Tinto has been considering a multibillion-pound takeover of the firm. It comes after Anglo American rejected a bid from rival BHP.

Meanwhile, shares in Vodafone are up more than 2% after the government conditionally approved its plans to merge with fellow mobile operator Three. However, an investigation into the deal by the UK's competition watchdog is still ongoing, meaning it’s not a done deal yet.

On the flip side, property listings website Rightmove is down nearly 6% this morning. It comes after the company cut its advertising revenue growth estimates in a trading update.

Rightmove said higher mortgage rates and lengthier completion times for sales were likely to weigh on buyer sentiment in the coming months, but it also forecast a better year for the UK residential market as a whole.

On the currency markets, £1 buys $1.25 US or €1.16.

Sainsbury's is running a scheme that allows some shoppers to earn easy Nectar card points.

To earn extra points, shoppers just need to spend £1 across multiple transactions at Sainsbury's this month.

The supermarket says the scheme is available to "millions" of customers, though all it would say about the eligibility criteria is that it's "based on a range of factors".

Check if you're eligible

Log into your nectar card app and check to see if you have this message...

Make sure you opt in once you see the message.

From there, you simply need to spend £1 or more five times - earning extra points each time.

The number of bonus points on offer varies for each customer.

The offer runs until 4 June.

Britain is not just out of recession.

It is out of recession with a bang.

The economic growth reported this morning by the Office for National Statistics is not just faster than most economists expected, it's also the fastest growth we've seen since the tailend of the pandemic, when the UK was bouncing back from lockdown.

But, more than that, there are three other facts that the prime minister and chancellor will be gleeful about (and you can expect them to be talking about this number for a long time).

First, it's not just that the economy is now growing again after two quarters of contraction - that was the recession.

An economic growth rate of 0.6% is near enough to what economists used to call "trend growth", back before the crisis - in other words, it's the kind of number that signifies the economy growing at more or less "normal" rates.

And normality is precisely the thing the government wants us to believe we've returned to.

Second, that 0.6% means the UK is, alongside Canada, the fastest-growing economy in the G7 (we've yet to hear from Japan, but economists expect its economy to contract in the first quarter).

Third, it's not just gross domestic product that's up. So too is gross domestic product per head - the number you get when you divide our national income by every person in the country. After seven years without any growth, GDP per head rose by 0.4% in the first quarter.

And since GDP per head is a better yardstick for the "feelgood factor", perhaps this means people will finally start to feel better off.

But this is where the problems come in.

Because while this latest set of GDP figures is undoubtedly positive, the numbers that came before are undoubtedly grim.

GDP per head is still considerably lower, in real terms, than it was in 2022, before Liz Truss's disastrous mini-budget, or for that matter lower than in early 2019.

Raising another question: when people think about the state of the economy ahead of the election (and obviously these new figures are likely to increase the speculation about the date of the election), do they put more weight on the years of economic disappointment or the bounce back after them?

Do they focus on the fact that we're now growing at decent whack or on the fact that their income per head is, in real terms, no higher today than it was five years ago?

These are the questions we will all be mulling in the coming months - as the next election approaches. One thing is for sure: this won't be the last time you hear about these GDP numbers.

The chancellor is speaking to Sky News after the welcome news that the UK has exited a recession.

"It's encouraging that the UK economy is growing faster over the last quarter, not just than France, Germany or Italy, but actually faster than the United States," Jeremy Hunt says.

"But I think what's more encouraging is the longer-term data that we are now seeing about the economy."

He praises the government's handling of the economy.

"I think that for families who've been having a really tough time, this is an indication that difficult decisions that we've taken over recent years are beginning to pay off and we need to stick with them."

He nods to the Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey's comments yesterday that inflation is expected to fall to 2% in the coming months: "So we're seeing that inflation is falling faster and I think people recognise it's been a very, very challenging period."

He's then asked whether the UK can compete with the US's economy in the coming years.

Mr Hunt says he wants the UK to become "the new Silicon Valley" as a route into the tech sector.

"Tech is the sector that is growing the fastest and will continue to grow the fastest," he says.

Finally, he's asked when national insurance will be abolished - a recent Tory pledge.

"We haven't set a date... we'll only do it when it's affordable and when we can do so without impacting on public services."

Our economics editor Ed Conwayis giving his first reaction to the ONS statistics that show the UK is no longer in recession.

"These are great numbers," he says.

"Certainly in the context of things, they are close to what we would normally historically call trend growth - a good rate of growth - and that's going back a long time.

"They're better than expected... this is definitely some good news."

The UK economy is no longer in recession, according to official figures.

Gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.6% between January and March, the Office for National Statistics said.

A recession, which is defined as two consecutive three-month periods where the economy contracts, was declared in February.

The previous set of figures showed that GDP, a major measure of economic growth,shrank 0.3% between October and December. It followed acontraction of 0.1%in the three months from July to September.

The slump was blamed on reduced consumer spending power as inflation and energy bills stayed high. Months of wet weather also contributed to keeping shoppers at home, commentators said.

Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, was buoyant about the figures: "It has been a difficult few years, but today's growthfigures are proof that the economy is returning to full healthfor the first time since the pandemic."

By Megan Harwood-Baynes, cost of living specialist

When my plane touched down on the runway of Manila airport, I was welcomed to the country with a text. Coming from Sky Mobile, the message informed me that using my phone abroad would incur hefty charges - including £2.16 for every megabyte (MB) of data I used.

One MB is equivalent to a short WhatsApp voice note message, and given my average monthly data allowance is 20GB (20,000MB), I would be quickly bankrupted if I continued to use my phone as normal. And while I love switching off from work while I am away, for me, the internet is as much a holiday essential as toothpaste and a hairbrush.

From the ability to check Google Maps when out and about, or do a quick search to check I am not being scammed, it is now something I always factor into my holiday budget.

Welcome to the world of eSims

An eSim is an industry-standard digital SIM card that allows you to activate a mobile plan on your phone without the need to install a physical SIM into your phone.

TLDR - it means you can activate a short, temporary internet plan while on holiday for a fraction of the price it would cost you through your network provider.

I used an app called Global Yo (other providers are available, but this is the one I used), which has 24-hour plans from as little as 99c (71p) for 1GB.

Once downloaded from the App Store, you can scroll through the list of countries to select your destination. Select the plan you want - while in the Philippines, I paid around £7 for a weekly plan that would give me 5GB of data. It is cheaper to do it day by day, but that also means you have to remember to top up each morning.

Once purchased, you are sent a QR code to scan - this will help you install the eSIM. The process varies by phone, but once installed, you go into the SIM manager settings on your phone. You can then toggle the settings so your calls and texts come via SIM 1 (your primary phone number), but mobile data uses the eSIM. This means you won't miss any vital text messages that come through to your phone number while on holiday.

The downsides

Not every network, or mobile phone, supports eSIMS, so check with your network provider before you shell out, and make sure your phone is unlocked. My sister, who lives in Hong Kong, wasn't able to install the eSIM on her phone but only realised this after paying £7.99 for a week's worth of data.

We also had some difficulty installing it on my mum's iPhone, but that could be because we are all Android users.

You also have to be connected to WiFi /the internet to install the eSIM in the first place, so make sure you do it while at your hotel in the morning. A few times while I was paying each day I would forget this, head out and be without internet for the day.

This wasn't exactly a hardship, but did mean I couldn't share with my Instagram followers what a great time I was having.

It can be hard to balance eating well without spending a lot.

In this series, we try to find the healthiest options in the supermarket for the best value - and have enlisted the help of Sunna Van Kampen, founder of Tonic Health, who went viral on social media for reviewing food in the search of healthier choices.

In this series we don't try to find the outright healthiest option, but help you get better nutritional value for as little money as possible.

Today we're looking at chocolate - and why, before sugar and dairy is added, it's a superfood, in Sunna's view.

A superfood is anythingwith a very high "nutritional density" - or lots of nutrients for few calories.

Superfoods need a high concentration of antioxidants - molecules which neutralise unstable molecules that can harm your cells.

You can get antioxidants by purchasing expensive "greens" powders, but Sunna says plenty of supermarket options can be classified as "superfood".

"Chocolate is not unhealthy, it is actually a superfood - it's the sugar we added to it that is the problem," he says.

"Chocolate in the supermarkets tends to come in at only £27.50/kg, which is almost half the price of your cheapest greens powder."

Sunna points out that cacao, from which chocolate is made, is in its own right a superfood and has more antioxidants than blueberries, acai berries and cranberries - well-known superfoods.

"Cacao actually has more than 40x the antioxidants of blueberries in its raw form," he says.

But, as he says, the added sugar is where the problems come in.

Sunna's guide to buying chocolate

Sunna recommends picking chocolate that contains a high proportion of cocoa solids - which brings down the sugar content.

Here's how the different kinds of chocolate stack up:

• Milk – 25% cocoa solids, 54g of sugar per 100g.
• Dark – 47% cocoa solids, 49g of sugar per 100g.
• 70% dark - 70% cocoa solids, 29g of sugar per 100g
• 85% dark - 85% cocoa solids, 15g of sugar per 100g
• 90% dark - 90% cocoa solids, 7g of sugar per 100g

"A typical milk chocolate only contains 25% cacao solids, and the first two ingredients are actually milk and sugar," Sunna says.

"For chocolate to be a superfood, it has to be dark chocolate - at a minimum of 70% dark ideally."

A couple of pieces after dinner each night means you'll be consuming 200g of superfood chocolate a week for £5.50.

"If you're a milk chocolate fan, don't fret," Sunna says. "It is possible to retrain your taste buds in just 10 days to get the superfood benefits of 70% and above."

That might sound easier said than done, but Sunna says the trick is to start with the lower percentages and work your way up to the higher ones.

"Get to a level you are comfortable with and then make sure you have a piece of chocolate every night for 10 days straight," he says.

"The more you train the taste buds, the less sugar you consume."

The switch from milk chocolate to 70% dark will save you 2.6kg of sugar a year, while working your way up to 90% will save you more than 4.8kg of sugar a year (assuming 200g consumption per week).

"Small chocolate changes - and a bit of work to train your tastebuds - can lead to huge sugar savings that are worth it not just for the reduction in sugar, but also the increase in antioxidants," Sunna concludes.

Read more from this series...

Every Friday we get an overview of the mortgage market with independent experts fromMoneyfactscompare.co.uk.Today, finance expert Rachel Springalloutlines what's been happening with mortgages this week, before honing in on the best rates for remortgaging…

Fixed-rate mortgage repricing has quietened down this week, but a couple of prominent lenders have made tweaks, such as Virgin Money increasing selected fixed by up to 0.2% and Barclays reducing by up to 0.39%.

This comes off the back of a busy week for repricing, as lenders reacted to rising swap rates.

The Bank of England's next rate decision will be in June, but it's uncertain whether a rate cut will happen, with some economists predicting no change until the last three months of the year.

Week on week, the overall average two and five-year fixed rates rose to 5.93% and 5.51%.

Looking at remortgaging, this week the lowest two-year fix for customers with 40% equity comes from The Co-operative Bank, priced at 4.76%, which comes with a £1,999 fee and offers borrowers £250 in cashback and provides a free valuation and free legal fees incentive package. This is available to those who borrow a minimum of £750,000.

Those looking to fix for longer will find the lowest five-year fixed remortgage deal comes from NatWest this week, available to those with 40% equity. Priced at 4.32%, this deal carries a £1,495 fee and offers a free valuation and free legal fees incentive package.

Best buy alternatives

As a remortgage customer, it's possible you are looking to save on the upfront cost of any deal. You might also want a deal to cover a valuation or legal fees. A best buy mortgage could be the most cost-effective choice in this instance.

This week the top packages on a two-year fixed remortgage deal at 60% or 75% loan-to-value come from First Direct, priced at 4.83% and 4.98% respectively, both of which come with a free valuation and free legal fees incentive package and charge a £490 product fee.

If you want to borrow more, then there is a best buy deal priced at 5.19% from Suffolk Building Society at 80% loan-to-value, which carries a free valuation and free legal fees incentive package and charges a £1,198 product fee.

A five-year fixed mortgage may be more appealing for you to guarantee your monthly repayments for longer.

Vernon Building Society has a deal priced at 4.49%, and charges a product fee of £999 but does not carry any incentives. If you are borrowing at 75% loan-to-value, then Cumberland Building Society has a best buy package priced at 4.58% for five years, which includes a free valuation and free legal fees incentive package and charges a £999 product fee.