The number of businesses going bust in the UK during the three months to September hit the highest level in any quarter since 2012 as labour shortages and rising energy bills took their toll, official insolvency figures have shown.

There were 3,765 corporate insolvencies in the third quarter of 2021 across England and Wales, an increase of 16.7% compared to the 3,226 registered in the second quarter.

Most of the firms collapsed without appointing administrators, indicating that an increasing number of firms that have struggled though pandemic came to believe the outlook was bleak.

Nicky Fisher, deputy vice president at insolvency trade body R3, said: “The economic damage caused by the pandemic is now starting to be reflected in levels of corporate insolvency.

She said the rise in liquidations “would suggest that company directors are choosing to close their businesses after trading for more than a year and half during a pandemic and deeming future success unlikely”.

Life moves fast in the world of crypto, and the latest currency on the block is inspired by Netflix’s hit Squid Game TV show.

SQUID, a coin inspired by the Korean-language programme, was created so it could be used to play an online game version of the show, which is based around debt-ridden players who sign up to compete in six games in order to win a cash prize, or face death if they lose.

The token is what’s known as a “play-to-earn” crypto, where users play a game and earn cryptocurrency while doing so, and buys entry to an online version of Squid Game, which is reportedly due to begin in November.

The SQUID coin’s appears to have caught crypto investors’ attention in much the same way as the TV show. Its value has shot up by 193% in just the last 24 hours, according to crypto price tracking website CoinMarketCap.

SQUID was worth just $0.01 earlier in week, but is currently worth over $6.

However, CoinMarketCap carries a warning that it has “received multiple reports that the users are not able to sell this token in Pancakeswap”, which is a decentralised exchange. It is urging investors to “exercise caution while trading!”

In other news from this morning - Morrisons supermarket chain must continue to be run as a separate business following the £7bn takeover by US private equity group Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R), the UK competition watchdog has said, while it reviews the deal.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has issued an Initial Enforcement Order, which requires Morrisons to be run separately and not re-organised or integrated into CD&R until the deal is cleared.

The CMA said the order “does not prohibit the completion of the transaction provided that the acquirer group and Morrisons” observe its restrictions.

CD&R said it was looking forward to “working constructively with the CMA to address any concerns they may have”.

The CMA is currently gathering evidence before it formally launches an investigation into the Morrisons takeover. After that, the regulator then has 40 days to decide whether to clear the deal, or demand remedies, or to launch a longer investigation.

Morrisons shareholders waved through the deal earlier this month.

The supermarket chain was the subject of an auction showdown, where CD&R’s offe narrowly saw off a rival bid by Softbank-owned Fortress Investment Group.

The backdrop of rising prices and expectation of interest rate hikes may soon make itself felt for UK homeowners in their mortgage costs, according to the latest calculations.

The days of record low mortgage rates appear to be over, writes my colleague Hilary Osborne.

Inflation predictions from the Office for Budget Responsibility, (OBR) released alongside Wednesday’s budget, suggest that the cost of servicing a mortgage could grow by 5.6% next year and 13.1% the year after, as increases in the Bank of England base rate are passed on to borrowers.

According to financial firm AJ Bell, if the predictions are correct, someone who borrowed £250,000 on a two-year fixed-rate mortgage at 2.06% earlier this year could see their annual payments jump by £600 when they go to remortgage in 2023. Someone with £450,000 of borrowing, on the same terms, would see their costs rise by £1,068 a year.

In recent years fixed-rate mortgages have been so cheap that most borrowers have chosen them. Industry data shows that 74% of borrowers are on this kind of deal, and that the 2.2 million with variable rate loans typically owe less.

You can read the rest of the story here:

NatWest Group tripled its profits in the third quarter to a better than expected £1.1bn, thanks to a jump in mortgage lending and a recovery in the economy despite setting aside cash to cover fines linked to money-laundering charges.

The bank, which is majority-owned by the taxpayer, said the stronger economic position had allowed it to release £242m worth of provisions in the three months to 30 September, which it had made to cover a potential rise in defaults because of the coronavirus pandemic. That compares with the £254m it put aside during the same period last year. Analysts had expected the bank to take a further £40m charge.

NatWest’s chief financial officer, Katie Murray, said despite reports of an increase in company insolvencies, the bank “is in a very good situation. So if there is an uptick, we’re not seeing it coming through yet, which is why we were comfortable to release what we released.”

More here:

While Germany’s Q3 economic growth may have come in lower than anticipated this morning, the wider eurozone picture looks slightly more rosy.

Overall, the bloc’s economy grew at its fastest pace in a year between July and September, as Covid restrictions were gradually loosened across the region.

Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, said eurozone GDP increased by 2.2% quarter-on-quarter, which represents a 3.7% year-on-year increase.

Standout performers were Austria and France, although Lithuania’s economy did not grow during the quarter, and Latvia’s by just 0.3%.

The next estimate for growth across the 19 countries which share the euro will be released on 16th November.

Yesterday, data from the United States showed that its economy grew at an annualised rate of 2%, which was lower than had been predicted.

Given that inflation is on the march globally, at a time that growth rates in certain developed economies are disappointing, some are asking whether much-dreaded stagflation - a troublesome blend of rising prices, and slowing growth - could be on the horizon.

Others are more circumspect and say that it’s not reached that stage just yet. Spyros Andreopoulos, senior European economist at BNP Paribas, is calling it “slowflation” instead.

Andreopoulos told CNBC in the wake of yesterday’s ECB rates decision:

Stagflation is reminiscent of the 70s where you had many years of very slow growth, even negative growth, recession and at the same time higher inflation. We don’t think that is really the risk, the risk is probably that we get some more sustained inflation, and indeed we are in the camp that thinks we will inflation rates going in line with what central banks want and possibly even beyond as a risk, much earlier than certainly the ECB expects

Supply shortages are at the root of Germany’s disappointing third quarter GDP.

Manufacturers who have full order books aren’t able to run production at full capacity, while at the same time consumers in the country are facing rises prices, including soaring energy costs.

These are some stark stats from CESifo research network:

German carmakers including Volkswagen are feeling the pinch of the global semiconductor shortage.

However Mercedes Benz owner Daimler reported a higher quarterly profit this morning despite the chip crunch, after it cut its costs and focused on sales of more profitable luxury cars.

Daimler said it expected chip supplies to improve somewhat in the final three months of the year, but has previously cautioned that the global chip shortage could last into 2023.

The dispute between Britain and France over fishing rights continues.

France’s ambassador to the UK has been summoned, and two Royal Navy patrol vessels have been put on a state of “high readiness” to tackle potential port blockades by French fishing boats, after the row over post-Brexit access to British waters escalated.

Yesterday it was revealed that French maritime police had seized a British trawler found in its territorial waters without a licence.

Since then, France has threatened to clog British exports in red tape over a lack of fishing licences for their vessels.

The dispute over the issuing of permits to French boats operating in the coastal waters of the UK and Jersey has ramped up ahead of the weekend expiry date on current licences.

The environment secretary George Eustice told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he wanted a negotiated solution:

We’ve got an agreement with the European Union and obviously the European Union has got a role in making sure that France abides by both EU law and the terms of the agreement that we’ve got. So we have spoken to the European Commission and we also thought it appropriate to call in the French ambassador as well, so we are raising this through diplomatic channels.

Colleagues in Paris, Brussels and here in London are following the story closely:

And here is all you need to know about post-Brexit fishing arrangements:

The energy industry regulator is poised to take “bold action” to overhaul the price cap protecting millions of households from rocketing bills as suppliers face a deepening energy crisis this winter.

In an open letter to the industry, Ofgem promised to open a consultation on how the energy price cap is calculated as soon as next month to make sure that it allows suppliers to recover their costs.

The regulator did not suggest any specific changes in the letter but the industry is expected to take the opportunity to call for the price cap, which changes only twice a year, to be more responsive to swings in the market by changing as often as once every quarter.

“These are challenging times, requiring bold action,” Jonathan Brearley, the chief executive of Ofgem, wrote.

This would be the first major change made to the price cap, which was introduced in early 2019 to protect households from unfair energy bills through a maximum cap based on the costs of buying and supplying gas and electricity.

Read Jillian’s full story here:

In case you missed it: Facebook made an announcement overnight that it is changing the name of its holding company to Meta, which prompted mockery and backlash in response.

At a time when the social media giant is facing a series of PR crises, and has also been slammed by whistleblowers who have leaked documents, the firm has opted for a rebrand.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the new name at an annual conference last night, at the same time as revealing the company’s virtual-reality vision of the future.

The social media network has been outlining its plans to build the “metaverse”, which is a digital world built on top of the real one, and accessed using virtual reality headsets and augmented reality.

Zuckerberg said:

We believe the metaverse will be the successor of the mobile internet. We’ll be able to feel present – like we’re right there with people no matter how far apart we actually are.

But it didn’t take long for politicians, comedians, analysts and other companies to mock the firm’s rebrand and blue infinity symbol logo.

New York progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez didn’t hold back in her assessment of the firm and its rebrand.

Read the full story of the rebrand here:

And here’s a round-up of how the rebrand was received: