THE DAILY BRIEFING

TAX PLEA

Taxes must be simplified to boost growth, the International Monetary Fund has said.

The body argued poor economic policies were holding back successful businesses and stopping failing ones from going bust.

It called for an end to unnecessary red tape and said this could increase expansion in advanced economies by 0.7 percentage points a year.

JOBS JOY

Employment has reached a record high in the developed world.

The OECD said 555m people are in work across 35 industrialised countries, or a record 67.2pc of the workforce. Britain has one of the highest employment rates of 74.6pc.

MILLENNIAL PUSH

PZ Cussons, maker of Imperial Leather soap and St Tropez fake tan, is launching new skin products – to be sold in Boots stores – to woo millennials.

TYCOON’S STAKE

Indian tycoon Anil Agarwal has completed his £2bn purchase of an 11.4pc stake in Anglo American. It makes the 63year-old the second-largest shareholder in the mining company.

TRADE UPDATE

Technology tools group Oxford Instruments has said trading is in line with expectations.

It said a good performance from Nanotechnology tools, had mitigated a slowdown in its OI healthcare business.

EXCHANGE SHUTS

US trading giant CME Group is closing its fiveyear-old London exchange after it struggled to compete with established European rivals. The firm’s London office will remain open and few jobs will be lost.

GOLD GLEAMS

Gold prices surged to a five-month high as investors fret about French elections and US President Donald Trump failing to deliver.

The price of the metal jumped by 1.1pc to $1,286.46 an ounce in trading yesterday.

DELTA REVIEW

US airline Delta has dealt a blow to Airbus by announcing it will review an £11.2bn purchase of new, wider planes.

The carrier is pulling back from larger-capacity models as it fears the long-range market is saturated.

OIL FORECAST

Demand for oil is set to slow for a second year in a row, the International Energy Agency has said.

The IEA expects demand to increase by just 1.3m barrels a day in 2017, to a total of 97.9m barrels.