Deloitte Monday Briefing: News Edition

The Monday Briefing, written by Ian Stewart, Deloitte's Chief Economist in the UK, gives a personal view on topical financial and economic issues.

We will be releasing the second quarter UK CFO Survey to the press tomorrow and will cover it in a special briefing tomorrow morning. As a result, we are dispensing with our usual main article today. This quarter's CFO Survey shows some very strong developments and is worth a look. We have included our usual news story section below. MARKETS & NEWS

UK's FTSE 100 ended the week up 2.6% after strong UK and US economic data and the Bank of England and ECB issued statements designed to counter fears of imminent interest rate rises.

Here are some recent news stories that caught our eye as reflecting key economic themes:

KEY THEMES

The European Central Bank and the Bank of England reassured markets that interest rates were unlikely to rise soon in a move designed to counter the effects of growing expectations of US monetary policy tightening US private sector employers added a better-than-expected 195,000 jobs in June, with upward revisions also made to data for April and May Purchasing Managers' data showed that the UK manufacturing and service sectors grew at their fastest rates in 2 years in June The proportion of UK services companies reporting rising exports rose to a record high in Q2 2013, according to survey data from the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) The Chinese 7-day bond repurchase rate, a key measure of short-term banking liquidity, fell sharply following the central banks pledge to provide liquidity and support to the banking system The Kuwait Investment Authority is seeking to invest up to $5bn in the next 3-5 years in UK infrastructure assets, following similar moves by the Qatari government Japan's Tankan business survey showed business optimism at an 18 month high One of Japan's biggest pension funds has invested in a $2bn electricity plant in Michigan according to the FT, marking the first infrastructure acquisition by a Japanese public pension fund Noble Corporation, one of the world's largest offshore drilling contractors, announced its intention to relocate from Switzerland to the UK to benefit from its less restrictive corporate law The Church of England announced its intention to create a credit union for clergy members The Portuguese finance...