1 Voting to leave the European Union has cost Britain more than £200 million a week in lost growth, the governor of the Bank of England believes. Mark Carney indicated during a private breakfast meeting with business leaders in Davos for the World Economic Forum that the UK had forfeited about £10 billion a year in GDP since the referendum in June 2016.
2 Britain’s employment rate has hit a record high, quashing fears that the jobs boom may be coming to an end. The number of people in work rose by 102,000 between last September and November, taking the total employment number to a record 32.2 million.
3 The pound is on track for its strongest month for eight years, giving some relief to Britons planning foreign holidays but signalling an end to the benign spell for exporters. Sterling surged above $1.42 and came close to €1.15 on the back of strong jobs and wages data.
4 Tens of thousands of businesses exposed to the collapse of Carillion, the construction and public services contractor, face an even more uncertain future because they did not take out credit protection against its failure, according to figures from the insurance industry.
5 Steve Mnuchin took a punchy position on trade policy at the World Economic Forum in Davos as the US Treasury secretary welcomed the prospect of a weak dollar as good news for American businesses. His remarks sent the dollar to a three-year low against a basket of currencies.
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6 Alison Platt has resigned with immediate effect as the chief executive of Countrywide, the largest listed estate agent in Britain, after a string of profit warnings sent its shares to a record low. Page 40
7 Sir Christopher Hohn, who runs the hedge fund that mounted a campaign against the London Stock Exchange’s boardroom last year, has raised expectations of a £15 billion takeover bid for the company by a transatlantic rival.
8 WH Smith said that like-for-like sales were down 1 per cent in the 20 weeks to January 20, with a 3 per cent rise in its travel business offsetting a 4 per cent decline in its high street stores.
9 The European Commission imposed a €997 million penalty, the third largest it has handed down, on Qualcomm, the American mobile technology company, for blocking Intel, a rival, by paying Apple to use only its chips in iPhones and iPads.
10 A campaign by the Chartered Management Institute, the professional body that promotes better management, is calling for everyone in the workplace to report the casual sexist gestures and biases that undermine women’s careers.