Aldi becomes fourth biggest supermarket as Britons cut back

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Good morning.

UK unemployment has tumbled to its lowest level in almost 50 years as more Brits left the workforce.

The latest ONS figures showed 3.6pc of adults who were out of work and looking for jobs in the three months to the end of July, down from 3.8pc in the previous quarter.

It came as more people were classed as economically inactive or stopped looking for jobs. Increases in long-term sickness and moves to education meant 194,000 people left the workforce.

The data also showed real wages tumbled to their lowest in almost two decades as inflation continued to outstrip pay rises.

5 things to start your day

1) Trains will run through the night as mourners travel to London – Plans for extra rail services finalized as thousands expected to flock to the capital for Queen Elizabeth’s funeral

2) UK teeters on edge of recession after ‘feeble’ rebound – GDP grew just 0.2pc in July, official data reveals, falling below economists’ expectations

3) Covid lockdowns and China help push 50m people into slavery – Another 10m people trapped in forced labor over the past five years, UN agency warns

4) Apple to allow iPhone users to delete and edit text messages – The tech giant updates its iPhone iOS so that users can edit a message for 15 minutes

5) German recession looms as Putin ‘wreaks havoc’ on economy – Eurozone’s biggest economy is expected to take two years to fully recover from inflation shock

What happened overnight

Asian stocks rose on Tuesday as traders in Korea returned from holidays in a mood to catch up on a global bounce, while other markets held steady ahead of US inflation data that will offer a crucial guide to the interest rate outlook.

Wall Street indexes posted a fourth straight session of gains overnight, while the US dollar retreated further from milestone highs – partly on hopes that the prices data, due at 12.30pm GMT, might offer another signal that inflation has peaked.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.6pc, led by a 2pc jump for South Korea’s Kospi. Japan’s Nikkei tacked on 0.3pc.

Coming up today

Corporate: Petra Diamonds (full-year results), Haworth Group, JTC, Trustpilot (interims), Ocado Group (trading statement)

Economics: Inflation (US, Ger), unemployment rate (UK), claimant count change (UK), average earnings (UK), economic sentiment (EU), monthly budget statement (US)

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