The Bank of England’s chief economist joined the minority on the rate-setting panel voting for an increase in interest rates this month, in a sign that the balance of opinion among rate setters could be moving towards tightening policy as early as next month.

Greg Hands has quit as a trade minister in protest at the expansion of Heathrow, just four days before the House of Commons is expected to vote for the third runway.

Saudi Arabia is urging global producers to reverse course and ease oil curbs saying the market will be "too short" of supplies without action, just as US president Donald Trump has ramped up pressure on Opec to lower prices.

Germany‘s top central banker has said it will take years for monetary policy in the eurozone to return to normal, supporting the European Central Bank‘s dovish outlook for interest rates.

Sterling was on the back foot in morning trading on Thursday ahead of the Bank of England’s rates decision at noon.

TSB was told it had not carried out enough tests and could have done more to limit the risks ahead of its disastrous IT update, just days before its chief executive publicly insisted its planning policies had been sufficient.

John Bolton, National Security Adviser to US president Donald Trump, is expected to visit Moscow soon, the Kremlin said on Thursday, giving the clearest sign yet that a proper summit between Mr Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin could be in the works.

East Libyan forces say they have retaken vital oil ports that had fallen to an armed militia a week ago.

Sadiq Khan, mayor of London, has said he will join legal action against a third runway at Heathrow airport if MPs vote for it next week.

Shares in Europe’s largest automakers fell sharply in early trading on Thursday after Daimler issued a warning that its profits would be hit by new Chinese tariffs on US imports.

Two staunchly Eurosceptic lawmakers from the far-right League were tapped to lead key Italian parliamentary committees that deal with economic policy, igniting a fresh sell-off in Italian assets.

Orion Mine Finance has swooped to buy Dalradian Resources with a cash offer that values the gold explorer at C$537m ($230m).

Lim Guan Eng, Malaysia’s finance minister, today announced the country will complete the Tun Razak Exchange (TRX) — a financial city development in Kuala Lumpur valued at almost $2bn — despite state investment fund 1MDB having misappropriated more than $750m from the project.

Strong income tax and value added tax receipts helped cut the UK government deficit to the lowest level since 2005 in May, according to figures published by the Office for National Statistics on Thursday.

Norways’s central bank on Thursday said that it expects to raise rates in September, sending the krone zipping higher against the euro. 

France‘s top central banker has said the European Central Bank cannot step in to offset slower growth or market turmoil should a serious trade war materialise or governments overspend. 

The Swiss National Bank is not amused by the political shockwaves in Italy that have put pressure on the euro and pumped up the franc.

French business confidence held steady in June as manufacturing and services remained stable.

Shares in UK defence group Chemring rose on Thursday after it reported a return to profits in the six months to the end of April and said it expects to gain from higher US defence spending.

2018 is turning into something of an annus horribilis for electricals retailer Dixons Carphone. That’s assuming the group’s creaking IT systems — which are still not fully integrated nearly four years after the Dixons and Carphone Warehouse businesses were merged — can recognise dates beyond 1999. Just a week after the company discovered a IT breach had compromised 5.9 million customer credit card details, that is not a given.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has hinted that he would be open to forging a coalition if his alliance failed to hold a majority in Turkey’s parliament at this weekend’s polls. 

Electronics retailer Dixons Carphone reported a modest rise in revenue for the year to the end of April, even as profit before tax dived 24 per cent and the group warned that it expected next year’s profit to fall by a further fifth.

The former finance director of collapsed audit firm RSM Tenon has been banned from the accountancy profession for five years by the industry watchdog.

President Donald Trump has reversed course on his controversial policy of separating children from their parents after illegal border crossings, in a dramatic U-turn that followed intense criticism from Democrats, Republicans and his wife and daughter.