Closing post
Time for a recap.
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The gold price has climbed to a fresh record high today, touching $2,365 per ounce for the first time.
Demand for the safe-haven metal has been pushed up by geopolitical risks, and worries about inflation, while central banks have been adding to their bullion reserves.
Rating agency Fitch has lowered its rating on Thames Water’s parent company, Kemble, to just C – one step above being in default. The downgrade came less than a week after Kemble missed a debt repayment.
The King has been presented with the first banknotes bearing his portrait by the Governor of the Bank of England.
HSBC is selling its business in Argentina, and taking a $1bn loss on the deal due to currency volatility and the plunge in the peso.
The IMF has warned that domestic shocks in emerging economies in the G20 are increasingly impacting growth in the rich world
Over in Panama, a criminal trial of 27 employees working for the law firm at the heart of the Panama Papers on money laundering charges has begun.
Eight years ago, leaked financial records from the law firm Mossack Fonseca sparked international outrage at the use of offshore companies by wealthy individuals to commit tax fraud and hide assets.
In 2016, files from Mossack Fonseca were leaked to reporters at the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the US-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Reporters from more than 100 media organisations, including the Guardian, collaborated to investigate the 11.5m files.
The firm’s founders, Jürgen Mossack and Ramón Fonseca Mora, are among those facing charges. They have previously denied any allegations against them, arguing that they had no control over the offshore companies that the firm set up for its clients. If convicted, they reportedly face up to 12 years in prison.
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