Bank of England Deputy Governor Charles Bean warned on Monday that the global economic slowdown is likely to "drag on for some considerable time".

The brightest schoolchildren should be required to study three sciences from the age of 14 to counter a shortage in suitably qualified employees, the leading industry body said on Monday.

Television advertising in the United States is good and holding up well in Britain, while Asia is a long-term bet on the emergence of an educated and wealthy middle class, the chief of News Corp said on Monday.

Vivek Tulpule, chief economist at Rio Tinto has said that copper prices could each record highs this year due to the continuing expansion of the Chinese economy.

Marks and Spencer issued a shock profit warning on Wednesday and said a consumer downturn was likely to be deeper, and last longer, than previously expected, hammering its shares.

Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England said on Thursday that he believed inflation would drop back down to the government's target of two per cent.

Office rents in London's key financial districts will not grow in the next decade, said a senior banker on Tuesday, who saw prime commercial property values falling by another 20 percent.

The economy is slowing and has to do so to help cool inflation, Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said on Wednesday.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has said that there is "no doubt" the British economy is slowing and warned that it would be "disastrous" if we "allowed inflation to take hold".

The global subprime crisis has yet to run its course, the chairman of Barclays said on Sunday, amid concerns that big lenders will unveil more credit-related losses in coming weeks.

The chairman of oil major BP rejected as "apocalyptic" a prediction by the head of Russian gas giant Gazprom of oil prices soaring to $250 (128 pounds) a barrel by the end of next year.

Banks are likely to pursue cross-border acquisitions as opportunities arise to pick up underperforming rivals or to make up for slower economic growth, the head of Britain's Lloyds TSB said on Tuesday.

U.S. stocks could be close to an "important bottom" as moves by the Federal Reserve and the government to spur the economy begin to work, the manager of one of Fidelity Investments' best-known funds said.

Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan was quoted on Tuesday as saying the United States was still more likely than not to have a recession despite relative stabilisation in the economy in recent weeks.

Emerging markets have reached critical mass to overtake the United States and European Union as the world's largest economic zone, HSBC said on Monday, saying their growth could avert global recession.

After a few years of brisk growth and job creation, Europeans were supposed to feel more secure and start to spend more, reviving consumer demand in the region and reducing its economic dependence on exports.

Europe is next in line to feel the impact from tighter credit, a tough situation for an economy heavily dependent on bank financing.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said U.S. financial markets are emerging from the credit crunch that many economists believe has pushed the country to the brink of recession, according to The Wall Street Journal.

On Tuesday the Woolf Committee published a report on BAE Systems ethical business practices. The report comes following allegations of bribery around arms deals between BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia.