Official figures confirmed today that the UK economy remains teetering on the brink of recession.
Economic output dropped by 0.2 per cent between April and June, the Office for National Statistics said, reiterating its earlier estimate.
Elsewhere, Saudi Arabia's crown prince has warned the price of oil could spike to "unimaginably high" levels unless action is taken against Iran, the kingdom's main enemy.
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Businesses are more pessimistic about the UK economy than they have been at any point since the June 2016 EU referendum, according to a new survey.
Lloyds found optimism had slumped 5 points in September to a net balance of minus 10 per cent. Firms’ concerns about the expected impact of the UK leaving the EU intensified, falling 7 points to a new low of -25.
However, businesses are more positive about their own firm's prospects, with optimism about trading for the year ahead rising 5 points to 13 per cent.
Hann-Ju Ho, senior economist at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, said:
“While overall business confidence this month has remained broadly steady, optimism in the economy has fallen, and both remain significantly below the same period last year, and the historic average. This month we are also seeing firms’ concerns about leaving the EU intensify against the backdrop of ongoing economic uncertainty.”
CVS becomes latest pharmacy to remove Zantac over heartburn fears
US pharmacy chain CVS has become the latest company to withdraw popular heartburn remedy Zantac and other generic products containing the same active ingredient ranitidine over concerns it may be linked to cancer.
US drug regulators announced an investigation into the presence of impurities in ranitidine products that have been identified as carcinogenic.
"Zantac brand products and CVS brand ranitidine products have not been recalled, and the FDA is not recommending that patients stop taking ranitidine at this time," the company said.
Walgreens and Walmart have already removed the products from their shelves while French and Canadian authorities have issued recalls.
Goals Soccer Centres accounting scandal could be much bigger than thought, bosses admit
A £hole in the accounts of Goals Soccer Centres could in fact be much larger than the £12m previously identified, company bosses have admitted.
The five-a-side football pitch operator was de-listed from the stock exchange this morning after failing to resolve an accounting scandal relating to millions of pounds of unpaid VAT.
Goals missed today's deadline for filing its full-year accounts after discovering irregularities over several years.
The company said: "The actual liability may be materially higher than that previously announced dependent on the approach and working assumptions that could be adopted by HMRC in assessing the misdeclaration."
Forever 21 files for bankruptcy protection
(Associated Press) - Low-price fashion chain Forever 21, a one-time hot destination for teenage shoppers that fell victim to its own rapid expansion and changing consumer tastes, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The privately held company, based in Los Angeles, said Sunday it will close up to 178 stores in the US.
As of the bankruptcy filing, the company operated about 800 stores globally, including more than 500 stores in the US.
In the UK Forever 21 has stores in Oxford Street in London, Liverpool and Birmingham.
In the UK Forever 21 has stores in Oxford Street in London, Liverpool and Birmingham.
'No-one really knows' cost of no-deal Brexit, says Chancellor
The Chancellor says no-one “really knows” how much crashing out of the EU will cost the country – undermining repeated ministerial claims that the damage will be minimal and short-term.
Sajid Javid did not dispute his own watchdog’s warning of a £30bn a year hit, saying: “I’ve never pretended that if you leave without a deal it won’t be challenging.”
And he acknowledged the severe impact on businesses, “especially if you a trader with the EU”.
The Independent's deputy political editor Rob Merrick has the full story:
UK GDP fell 0.2 per cent in second quarter
UK gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 0.2 per cent between April and June, unrevised from the Office for National Statistics' previous estimate.
When compared with the same quarter a year ago, UK GDP increased by 1.3 per cent, down from 2.1 per cent to Quarter 1 2019.
Production output fell 1.8 per cent – the largest decline since 2012 and worse than the previous estimate.
This was driven by a 2.8 per cent slump in manufacturing. This is likely to have reflected the effects of bringing forward activity in the first quarter of the year and the decline in car production as summer shutdowns for planned maintenance were brought forward to April.
Despite increasing by an unrevised 0.1% in Quarter 2 – the weakest quarterly figure in three years – the services sector continued to provide the main positive contribution to overall GDP growth in the second quarter of 2019.
Household consumption worse than previously thought
Household consumption has been revised down in the first two quarters of 2019, which is more in line with some external indicators that point to a more subdued picture.
Growth in household consumption has been revised down by 0.3 percentage points in Quarter 1 2019 and by 0.2 percentage points in Quarter 2 2019, due primarily to actual data replacing forecasts, ONS figures reveal.
The 0.4 per cent increase in household consumption in Quarter 2 2019 in part reflects a 0.9 per cent increase in expenditure on housing
Households and government propping up UK economy as firms hold back
As businesses hold off investment in the face of uncertainty around Brexit, households and the government have been doing the heavy lifting, according to analysis by Pantheon Macroecnomics of today's revised GDP numbers.
Chief UK economist Samuel Tombs said:
Government spending rose by 1.1 per cent, while households' spending increased at a steady 0.4 per cent quarter-on-quarter rate.Households could have increased their spending at a faster rate, but decided instead to increase their saving rate to 6.8 per cent, from 6.4 per cent in Q2.Following upward revisions to income from self-employment and downward revisions to households’ charitable contributions, the saving rate now is 2pp higher than previously estimated and nearly 3pp above its all-time low in Q1 2017.As a result, households have much more scope than previously thought to ride out any future hits to their incomes and still spend more.
City watchdog cracks down on funds investing in illiquid assets after Woodford scandal
Retail investors will be given some more protections against having their money frozen in investment funds, as happened to hundreds of thousands of people who invested their cash with Neil Woodford.
Woodford put significant amounts of money in illiquid assets - ie those that can not be bought and sold quickly - which then meant he couldn't offload them quick enough when a large number of investors asked for their money back.
What are the new rules?
Under new rules announced today by the Financial Conduct Authority, investors must be provided with clear and prominent information on liquidity risks, and the circumstances in which access to their funds may be restricted.
The obvious question is why this was not a requirement before.
The FCA points to risks with "inherently illiquid assets" like property.
In typically jargon-packed fashion the FCA has clarified that the rules will apply to certain types of funds currently defined as "non-UCITS retail schemes" (NURS). UCITS of course is an Undertakings for the Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (ie a fund that invests in things like shares and bonds).
To help retail investors, the FCA has decided it would be a good idea to create another acronym: 'funds investing in inherently illiquid assets’ (FIIA). The new rules will apply to FIIAs, which are a type of NURS.
Got it?
FIIAs "will be subject to additional requirements, including increased disclosure of how liquidity is managed, standard risk warnings in financial promotions, enhanced depositary oversight, and a requirement to produce liquidity risk contingency plans.
"These requirements will not apply where a fund matches the dealing frequency of its shares to the liquidity of its assets."
Thomas Cook refunds to take up to two months
One week on from the collapse of Thomas Cook, hundreds of thousands of travellers who bought packages from the failed holiday company have been told they will have to wait another week before even beginning the refund process – with the likelihood of no money back before December, writes Simon Calder.
The travel giant closed down in the early hours of Monday 23 September after a financial rescue deal fell apart. Around 21,000 Thomas Cook staff globally lost their jobs, including 9,000 in the UK.
Thousands of ships fitted with ‘cheat devices’ to divert poisonous pollution into sea
Global shipping companies have spent billions rigging vessels with “cheat devices” that circumvent new environmental legislation by dumping pollution into the sea instead of the air, The Independent can reveal.
More than $12bn (£9.7bn) has been spent on the devices, known as open-loop scrubbers, which extract sulphur from the exhaust fumes of ships that run on heavy fuel oil.
This means the vessels meet standards demanded by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) that kick in on 1 January.
The full story is here:
Prudential fined £24m for not treating customers fairly
Prudential has been fined £23,875,000 for selling its pension customers annuities while failing to inform them that they could obtain vbetter returns elsewhere.
Pension pots can be used to buy an annuity which gives the purchaser a guaranteed income.
Prudential has contacted most customers who may be affected, the FCA said.
More than 17,000 customers have been offered around £110m in redress so far for annuities sold between July 2008 and September 2017.
Mortgage approvals fall to five-month low
Lenders approved 65,545 mortgages for home-buyers in August - a five-month low.
Howard Archer, chief economic adviser at EY Item Club said:
"It is possible that housing market activity may have got a recent modest lift from house-buyers looking to get their move sorted out before Brexit is due to occur on October 31 given the major uncertainties as to what exactly will happen then."
He continued: "However, the fact that mortgage approvals fell back to a five-month low in August suggests that the upside for housing market activity currently remains limited amid major uncertainties."
Auditors face tougher rules after string of scnadals
Audit industry standards are to be tightened after a series of company failures after accountants failed to spot problems.
The UK accounting watchdog said today that auditors will need to follow "significantly stronger requirements" than at present.
Earlier this year, all four of the largest auditors that dominate the UK market - KPMG, Deloitte, EY and PwC - were found to have fallen short of the expected quality standard.
Accountants must "robustly challenge management's assessment of going concern, thoroughly test the adequacy of the supporting evidence, evaluate the risk of management bias and make greater use of the viability statement", the Financial Reporting Council said.
Sajid Javid promises minimum wage of £10.50 per hour
Sajid Javid has seen John McDonnell's move last week to increase the minimum wage to "at least £10 an hour" and raised him by 50p:
Ed Davey has taken a pop at Boris Johnson over his hedge fund donors
The Liberal Democrats are adding to criticism coming from Philip Hammond and the prime minister's sister Rachel Johnson.
A number of Boris Johnson's backers have bet against the pound and stand to make large sums in the event of a no-deal Brexit, the critics claim.
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Senior Conservatives have said there is no truth to the allegations that the prime minister is helping out wealthy donors by pursuing a no-deal Brexit.
Hammerson sells Paisley retail park
Retail property giant Hammerson has announced the sale of a Scottish retail park in a £67 million deal. The shopping centre owner told investors on Monday that it sold Abbotsinch retail park in Paisley to property investment firm Ashby Capital. Hammerson acquired the site, which houses retailers such as B&Q and Dunelm, in 2012 for £42 million and said it invested £17m into a expansion at the retail park, which increased its number of tenants from six to 14 during its ownership.
The deal means that Hammerson has secured £523m through sales this year as it looks to cut its significant debt pile. David Atkins, chief executive of Hammerson, said: "Our absolute priority is to reduce debt, and with this deal we have exceeded our target of over £500m in disposals in 2019." Shares were up 0.6 per cent to 285.8p.
PA
The British Chambers of Commerce is cautiously welcoming Sajid Javid's pledge to raise the minimum wage to £10.50.
BCC director general Adam Marshall said:
The government’s ambition to raise and simplify the National Living Wage is laudable but the path to doing so must be on the basis of clear economic evidence, with ample time for businesses to adjust to any changes.Companies already face significant cumulative employment costs, including pensions auto-enrollment, Immigration Skills Charge and the Apprenticeship Levy, so government must take action to alleviate the heavy cost-burden facing firms, or risk denting productivity and competitiveness.
WeWork cancels IPO
WeWork has said it will withdraw it's initial public offering after a disastrous few weeks in which controversial chief executive Adam Neumann was ousted following an ice-cool reception to the company from investors.
The decision was widely expected after the troubled start-up said earlier this month it would suspend its plans to list.
Wall Street balked at a sky-high valuation, that reached as high as $47bn in January. Reuters reported that WeWork had slashed that to as low as $10bn but still struggled to drum up interest.
Major concerns had been raised about the company's unusual governance structure and a business model that relies on taking out long-term leases on buildings but renting out space to its tenants on short-term contracts.
This leaves WeWork extremely vulnerable to an exodus of customers during a downturn.
An 'infrastructure revolution' is on the way
The chancellor has promised another £29bn for road-building projects over the next five years.
Much of Britain's infrastructure is crumbling after years of under-investment.
