1 All signs point to strong global growth this year and next, except in Britain, where it will stay unchanged at 1.5 per cent, Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said before the start of the World Economic Forum’s annual gathering in Davos.
2 Hundreds of jobs at Tesco are at risk after it announced sweeping changes to management. The latest shake-up at Britain’s biggest supermarket chain comes as it chases £1.5 billion of cost savings over three years.
3 Kodak said it was a coincidence that it distributed hundreds of thousands of share options to directors the day before their value rose by 245 per cent. The former film and camera maker enjoyed a share price rally on January 9 after the launch of the Kodakcoin cryptocurrency.
4 Britain is one of only three housing markets in the developed world in which house prices are unlikely to rise this year, according to a credit ratings agency. Fitch pointed to stretched affordability, low income growth and financial services jobs relocating to Europe.
5 Britain is running out of bricklayers, carpenters and electricians as it embarks on the biggest housebuilding push in a generation, according to the Federation of Master Builders.
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6 The ability of companies to attract, retain and educate skilled workers has slipped. The global talent competitiveness index, published by Adecco Group on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, put Britain eighth, down from third last year.
7 Accrol, the toilet paper maker, said that it had tumbled into the red at the year’s halfway point and that its chief financial officer had resigned. Gareth Jenkins, chief executive, cited factors including a leap in pulp costs and the Brexit-related weakness of the pound.
8 A dispute with the Mongolian government has prompted Rio Tinto to announce plans to open a new office in the country’s capital. The base in Ulan Bator will take the mining group’s staff in the country to 80 and is intended to foster relationships with its local partners.
9 Dixons Carphone sought to silence speculation about an emptying boardroom yesterday by bringing forward a trading update. Numbers beat forecasts, with a 6 per cent increase in like-for-like sales in the ten weeks to January 6.
10 More companies could get the right to access the Financial Ombudsman Service to tackle an “imbalance in power” between small businesses and banks. The Financial Conduct Authority plans to allow up to 160,000 more companies to use the service, which has been restricted to consumers and small firms.