For the three months ending 31 December, Google revenues jumped 32% to $75.3bn – these beat expectations of estimates of $71.652bn. Profits for the period hit $20.6bn.

The group reported better than expected profits, causing shares to increase 7% in after-hours trading.

Advertising revenues increased from $46.2bn to $61.2bn. The company generates more revenue from internet ads than any other group.

“Our deep investment in AI technologies continues to drive extraordinary and helpful experiences for people and businesses, across our most important products,” said Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Alphabet and Google.

As restrictions ease, Wizz Air has seen demand rocket.

Passengers in January soared 220% compared to January last year. The number of passengers allowed on the plane has also increased as restrictions ease, allowing load factor to increase from 61% to 79.6%.

“There is a very clear correlation between the level of restrictions imposed on travel versus market demand,” said chief executive Jozsef Varadi.

“What we are seeing in the UK today is what we are going to be seeing in continental Europe in the next four to six week, [i.e.] restrictions easing correspond to robust demand coming up.”

“The emergence of the Omicron variant and renewed travel restrictions impacted our trading performance late in the quarter and we expect demand in January, February and part of March to be impacted by ongoing travel uncertainty,”

“As such, Wizz Air anticipates the operating loss for the fourth quarter of F22 to be slightly higher than the operating loss of €213.6 million for the previous one.”

Last year, Amazon added 25,000 employees in the UK.

With original plans to hire 10,000 across the year, the group hired an extra 15,000 amid the high demands for the online retailer amid the pandemic.

Whilst many of these roles began on temporary contracts, many o the roles have become permanent.

This year, the group has said that it plans to create 1,500 internships in the UK.

The group added 17 stores in the UK this year. Amazon saw15 Amazon Fresh stores and two Amazon 4-star retail stores in London and Kent, which sells items from Amazon and small businesses.

As inflation is pushing up the price of groceries, the average shopping bills are set to rise by £180 this year.

Kantar has found that annual grocery price inflation jumped by 3.8% in the last four weeks.

“Like-for-like grocery price inflation, which assumes that shoppers buy exactly the same products this year as they did last year, increased again this month,” said Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar.

“Taken over the course of a 12-month period, this 3.8% rise in prices could add an extra £180 to the average household’s annual grocery bill.”

“We’re now likely to see shoppers striving to keep costs down by searching for cheaper products and promotions. Supermarkets that can offer the best value stand to win the biggest slice of spend,” he added.

Shopping habits are also changing. Supermarket sales fell 3.8% over a 12-week period and basket sizes are 10% smaller than they were in January 2021.

“Changing habits were most marked in London, where take-home sales of food and drink decreased by 11%. This suggests that people in the capital were the quickest to embrace eating out in cafés, pubs and restaurants, as many of us returned to city centres,” added McKevitt.