Live, rolling coverage of business, economics and financial markets as investors buy UK defence stocks and await Bank of England interest rate decision In a busy day on the corporate front, and the Bank of England is due to publish its latest interest rates decision at nooon GMT. But there is also important economic data across Europe. The latest GDP figures for Germany, Europe’s largest economy, showed GDP increased by 0.2% in the second quarter, marginally faster than the 0.1% expected by economists polled by Reuters. It’s almost too good to be true: the German economy defied the fallout from the war in the Middle East and grew by 0.2% quarter-on-quarter in the second quarter of the year, as some industrial sectors benefited from the fact that Asian competitors were hit harder by the closure of the strait of Hormuz. This is the first time since the end of the pandemic lockdowns that the German economy managed not to shrink for four consecutive quarters. Still, we must put this into perspective: average quarterly growth over this period has been just 0.1%, and the size of the German economy is still smaller than in late 2022. Continue reading...