Bank of mum and dad to finance a quarter of UK mortgage payments in 2017

Business picture of the day

• 1/28 Morrisons will sell 'wonky avocados' for just 39p from Monday as demand hit record levels - Friday May 12

  Morrisons will start selling deformed avocados at a third of the average cost of normally-shaped ones as growing demand and reduced harvests from major producers has pushed up prices in recent weeks. The supermarket said on Friday that it would start selling the misshapen and superficially blemished fruits for 39p each or £2.40 a kilogramme in the majority of its stores across the UK starting from 15 May until the end of the summer. Morrisons claims that its offer is the cheapest on the UK market and compares to an average retail price of £1.05 apiece, which is up from 98p last year.

  Morrisons

• 2/28 Unilever develops technology to prevent billions of plastic sachets from entering into oceans - Thuesday 11 May

  Unilever, the consumer goods giant behind brands such as Dove, Ben & Jerry’s and Marmite, is making a big push toward more sustainable packaging. The company sells billions of products in single-use sachets each year, including cosmetics and food products, particularly in developing and emerging markets. It says that it has now developed new technology to recycle them, which will prevent packaging from ending up in our oceans or in landfill. Through a system called CreaSolv Process, the plastic from the sachets will be recovered and then used to create new ones for Unilever products – creating a full circular economy approach.

  Unilever

• 3/28 Euro hits a six-month high after Emmanuel Macron’s French presidential victory - Monday 8 May

  The euro hit a six-month high against the dollar on Monday and US stock futures briefly touched a record high after Emmanuel Macron won the French presidential election, easily beating anti-EU rival Marine le Pen.

  Reuters

• 4/28 Princess Charlotte's John Lewis cardigan from birthday photo sells out - Tuesday 2 May

  A knitted yellow John Lewis cardigan adorned with pictures of sheep has sold out after Princess Charlotte was photographed wearing the item, prompting a surge in demand from British parents wanting to dress their offspring like the young royal. John Lewis confirmed that the clothing item sold out online shortly after the photograph was published, although a coordinating prink dress, selling for £10 on the John Lewis’ website, was still available on Tuesday morning.

  HRH The Duchess of Cambridge via Getty Images

• 5/28 Dubai becomes first city in world with own Microsoft font - Monday 1 May

  Dubai has become the first city in the world to get its own front, the government announced on Sunday. The type face, simply called “Dubai Font”, comes in both Arabic and Latin script and will be available in 23 languages. It was created in partnership with Microsoft and is now available to Microsoft Office 365 users around the world.

  Getty

• 6/28 Donald Trump administration loses trade battle over tuna as WTO lets Mexico hit US with sanctions - Wednesday April 26

  The US has just lost a major trade battle with Mexico and it revolved around tuna. On Tuesday, the World Trade Organisation ruled that Mexico is allowed to impose $163m (£127m) a year in sanctions against the US on trade in tuna, ending a years-long dispute. The clash, which dates back to 2008, centred on the US insisting that any Mexican tuna sold in the US must have a ‘dolphin safe’ guarantee, meaning that no dolphins were killed by fishermen catching the tuna.

  Reuters

• 7/28 Luxury brand LVMH to snap up Christian Dior for £10bn - Tuesday 25 April

  French billionaire Bernard Arnault moved to consolidate control over Christian Dior for about €12.1bn (£10.3bn), folding the fashion house’s operations into the LVMH luxury empire in one of his biggest transactions.

  Rex

• 8/28 Euro and shares rally after Emmanuel Macron wins first voting round of French election - Monday 24 April

  The euro briefly surged to a five-month high against a basket of currencies late Sunday after centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron won the first round of a hotly contested French election vote, an outcome broadly considered the most market-friendly. Immediately after the vote, the euro surged to $1.0940, its highest level against the dollar since November last year, before retreating to around $1.0869.

  Reuters

• 9/28 Barbie out of fashion as Mattel slumps - Friday 21 April

  Mattel shares took a hit after the world’s largest toy company reported a much worse than expected sales slump dragged down by poor demand for key brands such as Barbie and Fisher-Price. Shares in the company dropped 6 per cent to $23.70 (£18.50) in after-hours trading in New York on Thursday after the toymaker reported a loss of $133.2m or 33 cents per share for the three months to 31 March. Barbie sales, which begun to recover last year after the toymaker introduced new dolls with different body types and skin colours, slipped again with gross sales down 13 per cent compared to a year ago - their second consecutive quarter of decline.

  AFP/Getty

• 10/28 Government to sell Green Investment Bank to Macquarie in £2.3bn deal - Thursday 20 April

  The British Government said on Thursday it would sell Green Investment Bank to a consortium led by Macquarie Bank in a deal worth £2.3bn. The British Government set up GIB, which backs green projects with public funds, in 2012 as a commercial venture to spur private investment in green projects. It has invested more than £2bn in projects such as offshore wind farms and waste management. The Government decided to sell a majority stake in 2015, saying it would give the bank more freedom to borrow, remove state aid restrictions and allow it to attract more capital.

  AFP/ Getty Images

• 11/28 Snap election threatens Government plan to finally lower energy bills - Wednesday 19 April

  Energy customers face further delays from government in dealing with with soaring bills, MPs heard on Wednesday. Business secretary Greg Clark accused companies of “flagrant mistreatment” and “milking” their customers in a “broken” market, but insisted the snap general election announced by Theresa May on Tuesday meant he would “have to reflect on the timing” to lay out his long-awaited plans for a crackdown.

  Getty/iStockphoto

• 12/28 Pound sterling surges as Theresa May calls for 8 June general election - Tuesday 18 April

  The pound surged against the dollar on Tuesday to its highest level since last December after Prime Minister Theresa May said she wanted a general election on 8 June. When Ms May announced she wanted a new national poll, at around 11.05am, the pound instantly jumped, climbing to $1.2765 by the end of trading, up 1.62 per cent on the day and the highest since 13 December. It was also sterling's biggest one day jump since March 2016.

• 13/28 China's first quarter growth beats expectations - Monday 17 April

  This aerial photo taken on April 12, 2017 shows farmers working in the fields in Yangzhou, in eastern China's Jiangsu province. ina's growth stabilised in the first quarter thanks to rising investments and a recovery in exports. cording to an AFP survey of 16 economic analysts, the gross domestic product expanded 6.8 percent in the first three months of this year

  Getty Images

• 14/28 Rome’s Trevi Fountain generates €1.4m for city’s charities in 2016 - Thursday April 13

  Rome’s Trevi Fountain was a veritable cash cow for the Eternal city’s charities in 2016, according to new data. The charity Caritas said this week that tourists tossed €1.4m (£1.2m) into the baroque fountain last year, helping to subsidise a supermarket for Rome’s needy

  Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty Images

• 15/28 Pret and Paul offer discount to customers who bring their own coffee cup - Monday April 10

  French bakery group Paul and sandwich chain Pret a Manger will begin offering discounts to customers bringing in their own reusable cups, yielding to pressure from environmental groups concerned about the mountains of cardboard waste generated in the UK each year.

• 16/28 Doritos, Coco Pops, Peperami among latest products to be hit by shrinkflation - Thursday April 6

  Bags of Doritos, packets Peperami and boxes Coco Pops have become the latest treats to shrink in size as retailers passed on surging costs from the Brexit-hit pound and rising commodity prices.

• 17/28 Cuban family making their own wine brand using condoms - Wednesday April 5

  family wine business in Cuba is thriving thanks in part to an unconventional item being added into the fermentation process – condoms. As a result of the US trade embargo and other inefficiencies of Cuba's economy, thousands of basic household items are inaccessible to Cubans meaning that sometimes a little creativity is required to get the job done. At El Canal, a winery in Havana, Orestes Estevez and his family fill glass jugs with grapes, ginger and hibiscus, before securing a condom over each glass jug Allowing Heathrow to expand will create “a serious obstacle” to meeting the UK’s commitments on climate change and reducing air pollution, a leading scientist has warned.

  AP

• 18/28 'Pink Star' diamond sells for world record £57m in Hong Kong auction - Tuesday April 4

  A rare pink diamond dubbed the “Pink Star” has become the world's most expensive gemstone to sell at auction, coming under the hammer in Hong Kong on Tuesday for $71.2m (£57.3m). The oval-cut 59.6 carat jewel, discovered in a mine in Africa by De Beers in 1999, is the largest fancy vivid pink diamond, categorised as “flawless” or “internally flawless”, that the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has ever graded. It sold after a five-minute bidding war, that started at $56m, to Hong Kong jewellery retailer Chow Tai Fook at Sotheby's.

  AP

• 19/28 Stopping climate change could boost the world economy by £15 trillion - Tuesday March 21

  Efforts to slow climate change won’t just keep the planet habitable. They will also boost the world economy by $19 trillion (£15.2 trillion). Investments in renewable power and energy efficiency will add about 0.8 per cent to global gross domestic product by 2050, the International Renewable Energy Agency, or Irena, said Monday in a report produced for the German government. Governments are committing resources to green energy in a bid to keep warming within 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), of pre-industrial conditions, in accordance with the landmark Paris Agreement on global warming.

  Getty

• 20/28 'UK Disneyland' set to open in five years in Kent - Friday March 10

  It’s the news British film-lovers and thrill-seekers have been waiting to hear forever - no longer do we have to schlep across the seas to get our fix of stardust and adrenaline, for the UK is finally getting its own ‘Disneyland’. The theme park will be the first of its kind in the UK, and is being created by film company Paramount at a cost of £3.5 billion.

  Paramount

• 21/28 John Lewis cuts staff bonuses to lowest in 63 years despite soaring profits - Thursday March 9

  John Lewis has cut its employee bonus to the lowest level in more than 60 years despite announcing surging profits. The partnership, which is owned by its employees, reduced the bonus to 6 per cent of salaries making it the lowest since 1954. It is the fourth year in a row that the payment has been cut. Pre-tax profits rose 21.2 per cent to £370.4m as overall sales rose 3.2 per cent but the group said it cut staff bonuses because of an “increasingly uncertain” market.

  Reuters

• 22/28 Philip Hammond downgrades UK economic growth for Brexit years - Wednesday March 8

  The Chancellor was forced to slash his official economic growth forecasts while the Brexit talks take place, as he delivered his first Budget. Philip Hammond told MPs that Britain’s economy would grow faster than previously expected in the next financial year – by 2 per cent, up from 1.4 per cent.

  PA

• 23/28 UK businesses are already facing recruitment crisis as Polish workers head home - Friday February 15

  After a Brexit vote in which a primary concern was too much immigration, some might be applauding the trend, but for important UK industries it is already creating a serious problem, and one that provides a preview of what may be to come for the wider economy.

  Reuters

• 24/28 Global sales of UK food and drink hit the £20bn mark for the first time - Tuesday February 21

  Global sales of UK food and drink have hit the £20bn mark for the first time in history, as the Government prepares to ramp up its focus on international trade following the UK’s decision to leave the EU.

  Getty

• 25/28 Plastics industry 'pressured UK Government to cut recycling targets' - Friday February 17

  Recycling targets in the UK were cut last year after successful lobbying from the plastics industry, a freedom of information request by Greenpeace has revealed. The Government came under fire last year after it announced that targets for plastic recycling would be reduced from 57 per cent to a mere 49 per cent for 2016 and then increased by 2 per cent each year to 2020, to a maximum of 57 per cent by 2020.

  AFP/Getty

• 26/28 Inflation hits 1.8% as post-Brexit pound weakness feeds through to high street - Tuesday February 14

  UK consumer price inflation jumped to 1.8 per cent in the year to January, from a rise of 1.6 per cent in the year to December, as the slump in the pound since the Brexit referendum continued to trickle through to the high street. According to data from the Office for National Statistics published on Tuesday, January’s rise was the biggest since June 2014. But the jump narrowly missed analyst expectations for a 1.9 per cent increase, just below the Bank of England’s official 2 per cent target.

  Getty Images

• 27/28 Lettuce crisis hits those who love it most: hungry British sea turtles - Friday February 10

  The UK’s vegetable crisis has not only gripped the country’s supermarkets and healthy eaters, but also a bale of 12 hungry green sea turtles in aquariums across the country. Eight aquariums run by the company Sea Life are calling on visitors to spare lettuce or broccoli for their shelled inhabitants who, as a result of a shortage of some vegetables in the UK, are missing out on their favourite meals.

  GREG WOOD/AFP/Getty Images

• 28/28 Tim Cook met Theresa May and said the UK would be 'just fine' post Brexit - Thursday February 9

  The chief executive of Apple has told Prime Minister Theresa May that he is “very optimistic” about the UK’s future outside of the European Union. Tim Cook met Ms May at Downing Street on Thursday morning and reiterated the tech giant's plans to build a new UK headquarters at the Battersea Power Station as proof of the company's support of the UK.

  Getty