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Unusually for him, Benjamin Britten suffered from a bout of writer’s block while he was composing The Prince of the Pagodas. The solution came by chance when he heard the haunting, complex music of the gamelan in Bali during a world tour and immediately declared his problems solved.

Britten did indeed go on to complete his only full-length score for ballet, but he never had much affection for it. The work turns up in the theatre from time to time, but the music has become most familiar in the form of a suite that he extracted from the full score.

This release is only the full ballet’s second complete recording, as Britten’s own cuts 20 minutes of music. As his longest work for orchestra, The Prince of the Pagodas deserves attention and this fine recording will now be the place to go.

In designing his two-hour-plus score, Britten looked for inspiration to the master-composer of ballet, Tchaikovsky. He similarly divides up the music into danceable, bite-sized numbers, guaranteeing fast-moving musical variety, but the deeper emotional pull of Tchaikovsky’s ballets is missing.

The score’s strongest suit is its use of the orchestra. With its biting woodwind, growling brass and orchestral clarity, The Prince of the Pagodas is Britten through and through, and the gamelan-like sounds in the “Kingdom of the Pagodas” scene show the big influence the trip to Bali was to have on his music. The Hallé, under its new principal conductor Kahchun Wong, plays superbly and the recording on the Hallé’s own label brilliantly captures Britten’s coruscating sounds.

★★★★☆

‘Britten: The Prince of the Pagodas’ is released by Hallé Concerts Society

FEBREZE have caused a stink by reducing the size of their air fresheners – and charging customers the same amount.

Virtually half of the popular Air Mist spray has evaporated from the cans, as it becomes the latest victim of supermarket ‘shrinkflation’.

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The aerosol, which comes in a variety of scents such as Cotton Fresh and Pet Heavy Duty, has been reduced from 300ml to 185ml.

But despite the 39 per cent reduction, Tesco were spotted advertising the two products with the same £2.50 price tag.

It means that hard-hit consumers are forking out more than £13.50 per litre, compared to just £8.33 before.

After sniffing out the mammoth reduction, Jon Silk fumed on social media: “Febreze, what’s with the shrinkflation? 

“300ml in a can from last year and only 185ml this year! What’s the likelihood that the price has dropped by 40%? 

“And all the extra packaging involved in having smaller cans? What a waste of packaging!

Another said: “Even Febreze has discreetly made their spray bottles smaller by making them thinner. 

“They look the same but when you still have an old one and put them side by side you notice the “slimming”. The price has not gone down!”

Whilst a third added: “Oh look, another shrinkflation rip off!”

Tesco confirmed that manufacturers Proctor and Gamble had discontinued the original 300ml product. 

And a spokesperson for Procter and Gamble said: “This year, we improved our Febreze Air Mist product.

“This has given shoppers the same number of sprays but now with 2X longer freshness vs the previous formula.

“Thanks to these improvements in formula, propellant and bottle design, the Febreze Air Mist now uses 20% less packaging.”

What is shrinkflation?

Shrinkflation is when manufacturers shrink the size or quantity of a product while keeping the price the same.

This means that consumers will be paying more per given amount.

It is a form of hidden inflation and can go unnoticed by customers.

But companies run the risk of turning customers away from a product or brand if they do notice they are getting less for the same price.

The “shrink” in shrinkflation relates to the change in product size, while the -flation part refers to inflation – the rise in the price level, according to Investopedia.

What causes shrinkflation?

Companies will often engage in shrinkflation when their production costs begin to rise.

When key materials or labor shoot up in price, the cost to manufacture goods rises as well.

This can cause a heavy hit to profit margins and may force the company to simply shrink their products rather than increase the sticker price.

One of the best ways to notice shrinkflation is by spotting a redesign on the packaging or a new slogan.

This may means the company has made a change and that change may just be the size of the product.

The price of cocoa, for example, will impact companies producing candy bars.

Rather than increase the price of their product, the company may choose to reduce the size to keep competitive with other companies.

Mars Inc took this path in 2017, shrinking its range of Maltesers, M&Ms, and Minstrels in the United Kingdom by 15%, according to powderbulksolids.com.

Brazil’s exchange rate to the dollar has dropped to near record lows, heaping further pressure on the leftwing government to introduce spending cuts quickly and calm mounting investor concerns over its commitment to fiscal discipline.

After weeks of the currency declining, president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s administration on Monday confirmed it would soon unveil long-anticipated measures to curb expenditure.

The government’s decision to accelerate the announcement is viewed in part as a reaction to a sharp fall in the real, which has been under strain as fund managers fret over the management of the public finances of Latin America’s largest economy.

The currency is down a almost a fifth against the dollar and is the third worst-performing major currency on a total return basis. It skirted close to a record low on Wednesday as the greenback surged following the election of Donald Trump.

A 2.6 per cent fall took the real to 5.89 to the dollar, close to the psychologically-important level of six, according to Bloomberg data, before recovering its losses.

“Investors, market agents and companies are worried because the government has not shown it is really committed to achieving fiscal sustainability,” said Luiz Figueiredo, chair of Jive Investments in São Paulo and a former central bank director.

“They’re taking it more seriously, no doubt. But I’m a little sceptical as to whether it will calm the crowd down,” he added.

The real has suffered from a sustained dollar rally, similar to other “carry trade” currencies like the Mexican peso. But asset managers say the Brazilian currency has also been hit by fears that a loose fiscal policy under the Lula administration will feed inflation, and force the central bank to keep interest rates higher for longer.

Swaps markets are pricing rates for the South American nation to reach more than 13.5 per cent by the middle of next year, a sharp contrast to the current basic lending benchmark of 10.75 per cent. In parallel, Brazilian stocks have fallen nearly 5 per cent since late August.

With addressing the issue now the main domestic priority, finance minister Fernando Haddad cancelled a trip to Europe this week at Lula’s request to focus on the cost reduction proposals.

Thierry Larose, emerging markets bonds portfolio manager at Swiss bank Vontobel, said a savings figure in the middle of a R$30bn-R$50bn range suggested by local media would be well-received by markets.

“The US dollar getting close to six against the real and all-time highs has been instrumental in why the government is now changing its attitude, promising finally to cut expenditure,” he added. “The sell-off has been overextended so it wouldn’t need much to have a rebound in Brazilian assets in general.”

Stock markets bounced on Monday when Haddad said the measures would be presented this week. The Bovespa equities index registered its strongest one-day rise since February, paring losses to 3.5 per cent so far in 2024, but the real’s losses resumed after the US election result.

Haddad on Wednesday said discussions with cabinet colleagues over the proposals had concluded yesterday and that Lula would in turn send the matter to Congress.

“The ministers are all very aware of the task we have ahead to reinforce the fiscal framework and the predictability and sustainability of the finances in the medium and long term,” he told reporters.

Mainstream economists warn that Brazil’s gross government debt, which at 78.5 per cent of GDP is relatively elevated for an emerging country, risks reaching unsustainable levels without more significant fiscal adjustments.

Lula has pursued a tax-and-spend approach in his third non-consecutive term as president, boosting welfare payments to the poorest and help for homebuyers and debtors. 

The veteran leftist’s ministers had already pledged to eliminate the budget deficit before interest payments in 2024 and generate surpluses thereafter, but until now this has been primarily premised on higher tax revenues. 

The IMF recently upgraded Brazil’s growth forecast to 3 per cent and unemployment is near a record low. Yet investor calls for spending restraint have mounted as inflation runs close to the official target’s cap of 4.5 per cent, leading the central bank to raise interest rates. 

Under consideration are cuts to obligatory expenses such as pensions and social benefits, which are mandated by the constitution and consume 90 per cent of Brazil’s budget. Ministers aim to ensure compliance with a “fiscal framework”, introduced by the Lula administration last year, which limits spending growth to 2.5 per cent.

Alberto Ramos, chief Latin America economist at Goldman Sachs, said the measures were unlikely to reduce overall government expenditure, given that the fiscal rules also stipulate the budget grows in real terms annually.

“The fiscal targets are way too lax and leading to a significant increase in public debt. The central bank is hiking again because the economy is overheating. The main reason is excessive fiscal activism,” he said.

The spending worries reflect pressures on governments across the region, including Mexico and Colombia, said Eirini Tsekeridou, fixed-income analyst at Julius Baer. 

“Fiscal discipline will remain an important topic for Latin America in 2025, as consolidation efforts are challenged by . . . both high interest rates [and] also high public debt levels,” Tsekeridou said.

Additional reporting by Beatriz Langella

Donald Trump has defeated Kamala Harris in the US presidential election, sealing an improbable comeback that is expected to pitch American democracy, US alliances and global markets into an era of upheaval.

Trump’s resounding victory ends a volatile White House race that saw the billionaire Republican face two assassination attempts, a criminal conviction and the eleventh-hour change of his Democratic opponent after President Joe Biden abandoned his re-election bid.

The president-elect gained ground on the Democrats in 48 of the 50 states in the union, sweeping past Harris in the “blue wall” of Midwestern states she had thought could deliver her the White House. He was also on track to win the popular vote — something no Republican has done since George W Bush in 2004.

Victory in the state of Wisconsin gave Trump the majority in the electoral college he required to return to the presidency, according to the Associated Press.

“America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate,” Trump said in a victory speech in his Mar-a-Lago resort, predicting a “golden age” for the US under his new administration.

Republicans also took control of the US Senate and looked set to retain a majority in the House of Representatives, with nearly 60 races in the lower chamber yet to be called. Control of the US Congress would give Trump greater freedom to pursue a radical rightwing agenda in the world’s largest economy.

In one of the earliest foreign reactions, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed what he described as “history’s greatest comeback” and a “huge victory” for Trump in a post on X.

The two spoke later on Wednesday, and agreed “to work together for Israel’s security . . . [and] also discussed the Iranian threat”, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office.

As investors bet that Trump’s policies would boost both economic growth and inflation, the dollar rose 1.7 per cent against a basket of rivals in its biggest surge since the 2016 Brexit referendum.

Wall Street stocks hit a record high, with the S&P 500 index climbing 2.1 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite up 2.3 per cent.

At 78, Trump will in January be the oldest US president to be sworn into office. His running mate, 40-year-old Ohio senator JD Vance, will be one of the country’s youngest ever vice-presidents.

Trump will return to the White House four years after his first tumultuous term ended with his attempt to overturn the results of an election he lost to Biden and the assault on the US Capitol by his supporters.

He will lead a sharply divided country, but voters showed they were willing to overlook his past behaviour and incendiary campaign, instead punishing Harris for the high inflation, global conflicts and a significant rise in immigration that Republicans blamed on Biden’s policies. 

The Democratic president, who entered office promising to “restore the soul” of a divided nation, ends his term deeply unpopular, and will hand leadership of the country to a man he repeatedly claimed posed a grave threat to its democracy.

Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, hailed Trump’s victory, saying the party was “ready and prepared to immediately act on Donald Trump’s America First agenda”.

Trump, the world’s pre-eminent populist politician, now returns to the pinnacle of global power and is expected to proceed with big policy shifts that will reverberate domestically and internationally. 

At home, he has vowed to enact sweeping tax cuts for individuals and companies, start mass detentions and deportations of undocumented immigrants and punish his many political opponents.

Senior officials from Trump’s first administration have repeatedly warned of his authoritarian tendencies and erratic leadership, with John Kelly, his former chief of staff at the White House, saying he met the “general definition of fascist”.

Abroad, the US’s trading partners and allies can expect Trump to impose steep tariffs on a much broader scale than in his first term, which could shock the global economy and strain ties with allied governments in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron posted that he was “ready to work” with Trump, while UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer congratulated the president-elect on his “historic victory”.

In the Middle East, Trump has promised to take a tougher stance towards Iran than Biden and resolve the wars in Gaza and Lebanon, although he has not detailed how.

Trump is expected to put heavy pressure on Ukraine to reach a settlement with Russia over Moscow’s invasion of the country.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sent his congratulations to Trump on Wednesday morning, posting on X that the president-elect’s “‘peace through strength’ approach in global affairs [is] exactly the principle that can practically bring just peace in Ukraine closer”.

Trump’s return to the White House eight years after his shock victory over Hillary Clinton could also serve as a personal legal victory for the former president, who was facing possible prison time stemming from four separate criminal cases. 

Earlier this year, Trump became the first former US president to be convicted of a crime when a New York jury found him guilty of almost three dozen charges in a “hush money” case involving payments made to a porn actor.

Trump also faces charges in two separate federal cases involving his handling of classified documents and his effort to overturn the 2020 election. As president, Trump will be able to lean on the Department of Justice to drop the federal cases.

Compared with his first term in office, Trump will be in a position to govern with a far more compliant Republican party on Capitol Hill. Many of his internal sceptics representing the traditional Republican establishment have either lost their re-election bids or embraced his leadership of the party.

Additional reporting by Tommy Stubbington

Adviser Services Holdings (ASHL) has sold its national advice business – LYNC Wealth Management – to Seven Investment Management (7IM).

ASHL operates both an independent and restricted advice network, Sense and Lyncombe, with a combined £9bn of assets under advice and over 450 advisers.

In 2023, ASHL began acquiring financial advice firms under the LYNC Wealth Management umbrella, with the aim of offering an exit for advisers wishing to sell their business.

LYNC has bought seven nationwide firms that collectively manage £500m of assets under advice, with plans to acquire several more firms in the coming months.

LYNC will become an appointed representative of the ASHL-owned Lyncombe network.

Additionally, LYNC will not be changing its leadership team “ensuring stability for all clients and stakeholders”.

ASHL said this transaction allows its focus to remain “firmly on its core mission, supporting the advice firms within its networks”.

ASHL chief executive Michael Couzens said: “This transaction marks a significant milestone for ASHL, enabling us to build on our success in supporting financial advisory businesses across the UK, which has served us so well since our earliest days.

“With the financial backing of the wider 7IM group, LYNC Wealth Management is poised for further growth through acquisitions and partnerships with financial advisory firms across the UK. We are excited for the future and look forward to ASHL’s continued partnership with LYNC Wealth Management as it enters this new phase.”

The transaction is subject to regulatory notifications and approval.

Earlier in November, 7IM acquired Rockhold Asset Management to expand its investment proposition.

The acquisition, which is also subject to regulatory approval, will take 7IM’s assets under management to around £27bn.

Rockhold Asset Management was launched in 2022 by the ASHL Group and now manages around £2bn of clients’ assets.