Friday newspaper round-up: Hard Brexit, mortgages, retailers

British companies across all sectors will remain resilient after the country leaves the European Union, even if the UK heads for a "hard Brexit", according to Fitch. Officials at the rating agency said businesses would cope even if Britain did not secure a transition deal with Brussels and fell back on World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules for trade with its former EU partners. – Telegraph

Men on low pay are four times more likely to be working part-time than in the 1990s, according to a survey that illustrates the trend for low hours and wages to go together. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said 20 years ago only one in 20 men aged 25 to 55 worked part-time with low hourly wages. Today one in five of this group works part-time. – Guardian

The company which cut the weight of Toblerone bars by widening the gaps between the chocolate peaks is now slapping a 20% price rise on Cadbury’s Freddo bars. The recommended retail price of the chocolate frogs, which weigh 18g (0.6oz), is scheduled to jump from 25p to 30p in the spring. The US food manufacturing giant Mondelēz, which owns Cadbury, said it was having to make selective price increases as a “last resort”. The firm made a better than expected profit of $548m (£448m) in its last three-month financial period. – Guardian

The traditional 25-year mortgage could be on the way out, with growing numbers of first-time buyers opting for deals lasting 30 or 35 years – suggesting that many will still be burdened with home loan debt in their 60s and 70s. The Halifax said that in 2016, about 28% of all first-time buyers with a mortgage opted for a 30- to 35-year term – up sharply from 11% in 2006. - Guardian

Britain’s retail sector appears to have enjoyed a far better Christmas than expected despite fears that there would be blood on the high street from falling footfall, slower spending and rising prices in the wake of Brexit. Yesterday investors were flooded with more than a dozen festive trading statements from retailers, including some of the country’s largest FTSE 100 operators, in a deluge dubbed Super Thursday. Marks & Spencer delivered a better-than-expected Christmas update, including a long-needed increase in like-for-like sales in its clothing and homewares division. Shares closed up 1.3 per cent at 345p.- The Times

Britain will remain under the rule of European courts well into the 2020s, a key EU leader has said. Joseph Muscat, prime minister of Malta, which holds the EU presidency, said that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) would have to continue “dishing out judgments” if the UK wanted transitional arrangements to allow important sectors to adapt.- The Times