Britain's government finances are expected to have worsened further in July and may have recorded a deficit in what is usually a surplus month.
With the recession hitting tax receipts and driving up welfare spending, the public finances are set to slip into the red - the City predicts a deficit of £500m for July. This compares with a surplus of more than £5bn a year ago. The government figures will be released at 9.30am.
"July is normally one of the more benign months for the exchequer - it has registered a surplus in every year since 1996 - but we doubt that the numbers will make for comfortable reading this time," said Philip Shaw, chief economist at Investec.
Borrowing is set to hit a record £175bn this fiscal year. April and May have already disappointed, while June's turnout was slightly better than expected.
Rio Tinto, the world's second-largest miner, today reported a 54% drop in first-half profits after aluminium prices and demand collapsed.
The company posted underlying earnings of $2.6bn (£1.6bn) and scrapped its half-year dividend, although it expects to make a final dividend payment to shareholders.
The main challenge for Rio is to resolve a stalemate with Chinese steel mills on price talks for iron ore, its biggest earner, amid tensions with the Chinese government over the arrest of four Rio staff in Shanghai on suspicion of bribery.
In Britain, local bus services are to be investigated further over concerns that lack of competition has led to higher fares for passengers.
After finding evidence that the £3.6bn local bus sector was "not working as well as it should", the Office of Fair Trading said it would refer bus service operators to the Competition Commission.
A five-month investigation found most routes were operated by only a small number of players, and passengers were faced with higher fares in areas where competition was low.
