THE DAILY BRIEFING

POUND SINKS Sterling fell against the euro and the dollar as investors braced for a flurry of news about the UK economy.

The pound fell below $1.29 and towards €1.15 – its lowest level against the single currency for three years. It came ahead of official reports this week that will show how the economy is faring after Brexit.

TAX BREAK More than one million small businesses are to be exempt from controversial new requirements to update HM Revenue and Customs every three months on their tax affairs, the Government has announced.

Around 1.3m businesses, landlords and self-employed individuals are expected to benefit from the changes to the scheme set out by then Chancellor George Osborne in last year’s spring Budget.

DATA BREACH The personal details of staff at hundreds of British companies may have been exposed by a potential hacking attack at Sage.

The software firm, which provides accounting, payroll and payments software to businesses, has launched an investigation after discovering an internal login had been used to gain ‘unauthorised access to customer information’.

CAR DEAL Car dealer Lookers is expanding into Mercedes Benz and Smart cars with the £55.4m purchase of rival Drayton Group.

The acquisition gives Lookers showrooms in Stoke-on-Trent, Stafford, Shrewsbury, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Stourbridge and Worcester.

CRUDE GUSHES Oil prices hit a one-month high last night on news Russia, Saudi Arabia and others were discussing a global freeze on output.

Brent Crude was trading at $47.87 a barrel yesterday.

The Opec cartel of oil-producing nations had sought to flood the market in response to competition from US shale wells – but this has driven prices to unsustainably low levels.

JAPAN STALLS Japan’s economy stagnated in the second quarter as weaker exports and business investment took their toll.

Output was flat between April and June – compared with growth of 0.6pc in Britain and 0.3pc in the US and the eurozone. FUNDING RULES The Bank of England is considering a move to relax funding rules for small lenders.

So-called challenger banks have long complained that the amount of capital they must hold onto restricts their freedom to act.

BEAN COUNTER G4S has hired Tim Weller as its financial officer. He joins the security group from oil firm Petrofac, where he had the same job, and replaces Himanshu Raja on October 1.