Wednesday newspaper round-up: BoE, UK visa rush, London property, Tesco

The Bank of England’s rate setters on Thursday will offer their latest assessment on the outlook for the British economy. Coming seven weeks after the country’s vote for Brexit, monetary authorities are forecast to cut interest rates for the first time since 2009. Economists and interest-rate futures markets both expect the Monetary Policy Committee to cut the bank’s benchmark rate a quarter point to 0.25 per cent, which will be the first move from the MPC since early 2009. - Financial Times

Sir Charlie Bean, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England, has warned that the impact of monetary stimulus was likely to be limited. “The world is very different from where we were during the financial crisis,” he said. “Rates are already at very low levels. The reason we stopped at 0.5pc in early 2009 was because we were concerned that cutting further would be counterproductive –the squeeze on bank margins might in itself reduce the extension of credit.” - Telegraph

Cutting interest rates this month would have little economic impact and could store up problems for the future, the shadow monetary policy committee of The Times has warned before the Bank of England’s decision on Thursday. Seven out of eight members urged the Bank to hold rates at 0.5 per cent at its meeting, when it is expected to unveil a cut as part of its Brexit response alongside downgraded growth forecasts. The majority argued that the Bank should do nothing at all and instead pass responsibility over to the government. - The Times

The UK could be forced to process 140 years’ worth of visa applications in just one year if there is a rush by 3.5m European citizens to secure residency rights once the process of Brexit begins. While ministers have said they expect to protect the long-term status of European migrants already in Britain if free movement comes to an end, keeping this promise would mean clearing a number of logistical hurdles. - Financial Times

Nuclear developers NuGen and Horizon have played down fears that scrapping Hinkley Point would derail the wider UK new-build programme, insisting their projects are not dependent on EDF’s getting the go-ahead. Industry experts have warned that confidence across the sector would be damaged if Theresa May pulls the plug on the £18bn project, especially given the French energy giant has already invested £2.4bn in Hinkley with unstinting Government support until now. - Telegraph

The number of properties sold in the most expensive neighbourhoods of London more than halved in the run-up to the EU referendum compared with the same time last year. The housing market in the second quarter was one of the slowest on record for prime central London, according to research conducted by LonRes, a property data provider. - The Times

Brexit presents “unprecedented” opportunities to seal trade deals that are beneficial to both the UK and foreign partners, according to the boss of Britain’s biggest car dealer. Reporting steady gains in revenue and profit at the half-year stage, Pendragon chief executive Trevor Finn said although there has been “some uncertainty” because of the unexpected result of the referendum, the business has seen no change in sales volumes or enquiries. - Telegraph

Theresa May has stressed the importance of improving productivity and reducing the gap between London and other regions as she moved to distance her administration from George Osborne’s chancellorship. After the first meeting of her new economy and industrial strategy committee, a No 10 spokesman said solving the puzzle of how to improve productivity would be at the heart of the prime minister’s economic priorities. - Guardian

Shinzo Abe launched a public spending package intended to salvage the Japanese prime minister’s foundering “Abenomics” program but economists said that the new spending it contained was inadequate to achieve the promised levels of growth. Abe’s cabinet approved a stimulus package valued at 28.1trn yen ($274bn) and said that it would add 1.3% to economic growth. But analysts pointed out that the new spending amounts to no more than Y6.2trn, not all of which will be spent this year, and that the actual boost may be no more than 0.4%. - The Times

Two banking heavyweights, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse, are being dropped from the Stoxx Europe 50 index of leading eurozone companies in a further sign of distress in the sector. Shares in Credit Suisse were down by 6.2 per cent to SwFr10.46 yesterday, while Deutsche shares were off by 4.1 per cent to €11.26. Both banks’ shares have nearly halved in value this year, compared with a fall of 11.03 per cent for the Stoxx Europe 50 index. - The Times

The former trader convicted of being the “ringmaster” of Libor-rigging has hit out at his jail sentence on the first anniversary of his imprisonment, saying that he had been handed a longer term of incarceration than rogue traders and bank chiefs responsible for the collapse of their institutions. Tom Hayes, 36, told The Times that he remained determined to overturn his conviction, arguing that his defence team had been denied evidence that would have shown that rate manipulation was widespread and condoned at the banks where he worked. - The Times

It’s tried serving burgers (with its disastrous acquisition of the restaurant chain Giraffe) and coffee shops (ditto with Harris + Hoole) but now Tesco is branching out into wine bars. Well, sort of. The supermarket best known for groceries, television adverts featuring the actor Prunella Scales, and investigations by the Serious Fraud Office has opened a pop-up wine bar in London’s Soho district, which for the next two weeks will serve only Tesco’s finest* wine range. - Guardian

A US federal judge has cut nearly all of a potential $562m fine against Pacific Gas & Electric Co (PG&E) in a criminal case alleging pipeline safety violations before a deadly explosion in the San Francisco bay area. US district court judge Thelton Henderson issued the order late Tuesday, hours after the US attorney’s office requested it in a court filing. The judge did not explain his reasoning. - Guardian