Wednesday, 13th September: In the lead up to the BoE’s rate decision tomorrow, UK unemployment data was released by the Office for National Statistics, revealing those out of work fell by 75,000 in the three months to July, hitting the lowest since 1975, resulting in the jobless rate falling from 4.4% to 4.3%. However, the squeeze is still being felt on wages as growth slipped further behind the cost of living , rising 2.1%, much below yesterday’s 2.9% inflation reading for August. The increasing spread between inflation and wage growth has eroded households’ purchasing power and led to a slowdown in consumer spending; real wage growth, which takes into account inflation, declined for the fifth straight month. The pound initially dropped following the announcement, but rebounded against the euro, although it slipped lower against the dollar as the day progressed.

easyJet looks set to become the first global airline connections service by a European low fares carrier as it lets customers use its website to book long-haul flights with other carriers.  They are teaming up with Norwegian and WestJet to offer flight to North and South America, as well as Singapore, from Gatwick. However, it won’t be completely straight forward for passengers; they will have a minimum 2.5 hours connection time between flights while baggage allowance may vary depending on the carrier. Passengers that check a bag in will need to collect it and hand it on to a specified vendor to get in on to the connecting flight. The new service will not drive up operation costs the easyJet say. Europe’s second largest airline made moderate gains on a rather subdued blue-chip index, rising 0.68% to £12.04.

Indices in the UK paired back slightly, as although there are no expectations for a rate rise from the BoE tomorrow, there is much anticipation for the tone of Carney’s comments afterwards.  The FTSE 100 fell back 0.28% while the 250 fell 0.39%. Indices in France and Germany rose c.0.25%, while in the US, brushing off the disappointing in delivery date of Apple’s new iPhone X (pronounced “ten”), indices were around flat at the time of writing. Apple themselves are down 1.42% at the time of writing.