Tuesday newspaper round-up: Growth concerns, China, insurance, autumn coup

Rising prices and weak wage growth are already hitting the economy as British households are forced to cut back spending, analysts at PwC have warned as they forecast economic growth will slow to 1.5% this year from 1.8% in 2016. Falls in the pound over the past year have pushed up the cost of imported goods such as food and petrol, while wages have failed to maintain pace – though steady falls in unemployment have helped to cushion the blow. - Telegraph

China’s central bank has revealed shocking figures on the scale of shadow banking operations in the country, admitting that off-balance sheet business is more than double previous estimates. Bank assets are approaching $38 trillion (£29 trillion). The explosive growth of hidden activities on the margins of the financial system has alarmed the People’s Bank (PBOC), and suggests that the two-year credit spree since the downturn in early 2015 is treacherously unstable. - Telegraph

Brexit will hurt the car and financial services industries and locations as diverse as London and the Isles of Scilly, in particular, according to the Office for National Statistics. The ONS has drawn up an analysis showing which parts of the country could be most affected “because they are home to a concentration of industry or industries which have most at stake when the terms surrounding access to the single market, the free movement of labour, levels of funding and existing EU regulations are discussed”. - The Times

Theresa May is expected to face an effort by some Tory MPs to oust her in the autumn, despite her attempt to regain authority over her cabinet by ordering them to stop leaking details of their infighting over Brexit. With a letter of no confidence already in circulation but only a small number of signatures so far, several MPs said on Monday that May was safe until summer – with colleagues desperate to get to the parliamentary recess and have a break. - Guardian

The City watchdog has begun an investigation into the fast-growing £600 billion investment platform industry amid concerns that investors may not be getting the best value for money and that big providers could be keeping out competition from cheaper rivals. The Financial Conduct Authority said that it would examine the business models of Hargreaves Lansdown, Cofunds and others as it looked at whether they were delivering on their promise to use their market power to give customers a better deal on access to investment products. - The Times

Residents living in a brand new housing development in Yorkshire have been told their homes will be bulldozed in order to make way for the final HS2 route. Properties on the Shimmer housing estate in Mexborough will be bulldozed to make way for the high-speed railway, the Department for Transport said, confirming the line will go through South Yorkshire, after scrapping a proposed station in Meadowhall in favour of a stop in Sheffield city centre. - Telegraph

The cost of car insurance has soared by 11%, nearly four times the rate of inflation, over the past year, taking the cost of motor cover to a record high. UK drivers are paying an average £484 for an annual insurance policy, up£48 in the last 12 months, according to the Association of British Insurers. It laid much of the blame on changes to compensation rules and an increase in insurance premium tax. - Guardian

Libor is on its way out as the interest rate used to value trillions of dollars of financial products and eventually will be replaced by a benchmark based on actual transactions, according to the governor of the Bank of England. Mark Carney told financiers that a shift towards a market rate backed by real money and not bankers’ judgments was “necessary and . . . would happen”. - The Times

Donald Trump urged Republicans in Congress on Monday to repeal Obamacare and work on a healthcare plan that he said would draw Democratic support. The president was reacting after the Republicans' bid to overhaul healthcare legislation in the US Congress were left in chaos after a second attempt to pass a bill in the Senate collapsed late on Monday. - Telegraph

Netflix's subscriber numbers grew by 5.2 million in the three months ended June 30, almost 63pc ahead of its expectations, causing shares to jump nearly 11pc in after-hours trading and hit an all-time high. The streaming service had expected to add 3.2 million subscribers in the period, but said it had "underestimated the popularity of [its] strong slate of content" and now had around 104m subscribers worldwide. - Telegraph

James Murdoch, the chief executive of 21st Century Fox and son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, has joined the board of Tesla, after months of pressure from investors about the lack of independent directors on the electric car company's board. Mr Murdoch is joining the board as a director together with Linda Johnson Rice, the chairman of Johnson Publishing, which publishes titles such as EBONY Magazine and JET. - Telegraph

The Emirati owner of the Excel London conference centre has formed a venture with Mount Anvil, a housebuilder, to build up to 1,000 apartments next to the venue. The state-owned Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company, which bought London’s largest exhibition centre for £318 million in 2008, is thinking of building apartment blocks on land near by, according to Bloomberg News. - The Times

Karren Brady, the West Ham United chief executive and regular on The Apprentice, is to take over as chair of Sir Philip Green’s retail empire as Anthony Grabiner steps down. Lord Grabiner, who has spent 15 years at the head of Taveta, is to step down with immediate effect. Taveta is the Green family firm, owned by Sir Philip Green’s Monaco-based wife Tina. It controls Arcadia , which in turn owns fashion chains including Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge and Dorothy Perkins and previously included BHS. - Guardian

A century-long rise in life expectancy has stalled since 2010 when austerity brought about deep cuts in NHS and social care spending, according to research by a former government adviser on the links between poverty and ill-health. Life expectancy at birth had been going up so fast that women were gaining an extra year of life every five years and men an additional 12 months every three-and-a-half years. - Guardian

The NHS is set to recruit 2,000 foreign GPs — quadruple the previous target — in a drive to combat a shortage of family doctors. Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, said it would target other EU countries as well as Australia and New Zealand. - The Times

France has launched a special smartphone application to track a rocketing plague of ticks, which cause over 30,000 cases of Lyme disease par year and pose a threat to thousands of British holidaymakers who take to the French countryside in summer. Experts on Monday warned that growing numbers of disease-carrying ticks were "moving North" to Britain and as far as Scotland due to warmer and wetter conditions linked to climate change. -Telegraph