Good afternoon. George Osborne pledged in July to take steps to to boost productivity in the UK. Figures from the Office for National Statistics suggest he might need to increase his steps to massive strides.
Britain was far less productive than its G7 peers last year, lagging them on average by the most since records began in 1991, official data showed on Friday, highlighting a persistent problem for Britain's government.
The figures, a first estimate for 2014, showed productivity, measured as output per hour worked, was 20 percentage points below the average in the rest of the G7.
It lagged the United States, Germany and France by a hefty margin and was slightly worse than Italy and Canada. The only country where productivity was lower was Japan, the data showed.
"These figures show UK productivity continues to lag behind other developed economies," ONS chief economist Joe Grice said. "Since the economic downturn, productivity growth has slowed in most developed economies, but by more in the UK than the average."
There’s plenty more on this on the Business Now live blog.
Meanwhile, UK payment processing company WorldPay has announced plans to float on the London market after weeks of speculation and multi-billion pound bids from German and French technology giants.
The company, which is owned by Advent International and Bain Capital, said it wants to raise around £890 million through the listing with a free float of at least 25 per cent, with an over-allotment of up to 15 per cent.
However, if its private equity owners also sell part of their stakes it could be the biggest IPO this year, overtaking Auto Trader.
It also worth noting that RBS was forced to sell it by the European Commission back in 2010 as part of its state-aid bailout. It sold it for £2 billion. The company is now worth around £6 billion.
Ed Curwen has the full story here.
Meanwhile, following the Fed’s decision to do nothing with rates yet again, markets are all lower, due to the downbeat comments on the state of the global economy.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 dropped 1 per cent while the eurozone's blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 fell 1.2 per cent. In London, the FTSE 100 is off 0.89 per cent, in Frankfurt the Dax is 2.27 per cent lower, while the Cac in Paris has shed 2.35 per cent. When US markets open shortly, the Dow Jones is expected to open 130 points lower.
Traders said uncertainty over when the Fed would eventually raise rates was adding further pressure to markets.
You can read the full story here.
David Potts, the chief executive of Morrisons since March, has spent half a million pounds buying shares in the supermarket. Yesterday he bought 314,881 shares at 158.8p, the company announced this morning.
That is on top of the £1 million he spent buying 508,000 shares during the first week.
That is stark contrast to Dave Lewis, the boss of Tesco, who is yet to buy any shares in Britain's largest supermarket.
In fact, earlier this week the Guardian reported that the entire board of Tesco has bought less than £350,000 of shares in the supermarket chain.
Finally, this week’s podcast is out. UK’s public finances, growing eurozone confidence (despite questions over whether it is actually QE driving the recovery), and an M&A bonanza (are mergers actually a good thing?) are the topics this week. Philip Aldrick, our Economics Editor and Deirdre Hipwell, M&A Correspondent discuss and there is even an apology from Richard Fletcher, the Business Editor. You can listen via iTunes and Soundcloud.
Have a great weekend and enjoy the rugby. I most certainly will be.
Rebecca Clancy
Breaking News Editor
The Times
rebecca.clancy@thetimes.co.uk
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