FTSE Friday: Corporate red flags after the interest rate hike

Corporate reporting in the UK seems to be finally starting to wind down for Christmas, but with inflation figures and the latest announcement from the Bank of England, there has still been plenty for British investors to dig their teeth into this week.
In this week’s FTSE Friday, we’ll be looking at the economic situation through three company-specific lenses:

Debt
Spending
Inventories

But first, an overview of the events from this week.
November’s inflation figures (published on Wednesday) have climbed down slightly from the previous month, but both the retail price index and consumer price index are almost double the level they were at this time last year at 14% and 10.7% respectively.
On Thursday the Bank of England raised UK base rates to 3.5% - its highest level in 14 years. In a bid to stem the tide of rising prices, the UK’s central bank has now raised the rates nine times in a row, causing pain for borrowers (including those heavily indebted big British companies that we will look at in more detail below).
Neither the inflation nor the interest rate numbers will have come as much of a surprise. Although the BoE decision was split, making it hard to predict the next move.
Scenario One: Further...