1 Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, wants a meeting with Donald Trump after the US president-elect sent shares in BMW sliding by 1.5 per cent by singling out the German carmaker, which is planning a plant in Mexico, with a threat of 35 per cent tariffs on imports to the United States.
2 Britain is set to become a nation of shop owners as buy-to-let investors increasingly turn from the residential market to commercial properties in a trend driven by stringent new tax and lending rules for buy-to-let landlords.
3 Britain’s robust growth in the months after the Brexit vote has led the International Monetary Fund to raise its forecast for expansion of the economy to 1.5 per cent this year, a rise of 0.4 percentage points on its previous estimate in October.
4 Four years of bribery and corruption investigations across five continents have ended with Rolls-Royce making a £671 million out-of-court settlement with fraud-busters and international government agencies, with a record £500 million being paid to the Serious Fraud Office.
5 The pound slipped as much as 1.6 per cent against the dollar to a low of $1.1986, close to its worst level against the US dollar in 32 years, amid fears that the prime minister will set out a plan for a hard Brexit and a break from the EU’s single market.
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6 Analysts expect a power struggle between Leonardo Del Vecchio, the 81-year-old founder of Luxottica, the Italian spectacles group that owns such brands as Ray-Ban, and Hubert Sagnières, 61, chairman and chief executive of Essilor, the French lens specialist, in the wake of a merger between the companies.
7 Saudi Arabia has suggested there will no extension of Opec’s cuts in oil production beyond June, with the cartel’s members largely sticking to a deal to reduce supplies.
8 Prosecutors in South Korea have demanded the arrest of Lee Jae Yong, vice-chairman of Samsung Electronics, for bribery, embezzlement and perjury in a scandal that has already led to the impeachment of President Park.
9 Marco Gobbetti, the incoming boss of Burberry, will start work on January 27 in a temporary role of “executive chairman” of Asia Pacific and the Middle East, reporting to Sir John Peace, the chairman, but will not take charge of the British luxury fashion chain until July.
10 Airbus, the European aerospace group, has said that a self-piloted flying car will be on the road, and in the air, by the end of the year, and separately Ruopeng Liu, a Chinese mechanical engineer, has taken a stake in a Dorset-based company that is making the engines that are turning jetpacks and flying cars into a reality.