China has accused Rio Tinto of spying on its steel industry for six years, costing the country Rmb700bn ($102bn) in excessive charges for iron ore. The remarks, contained in an editorial in the magazine of the National Administration for the Protection of State Secrets, indicate that Beijing's detention of four Rio employees in China on accusations of stealing state secrets about iron ore price negotiations could be the start of a widening campaign, the FT reports.Sir Win Bischoff, the chairman designate of Lloyds Banking Group, is believed to be pushing for the bank to raise up to £15bn from the stock market to keep down the cost of insuring toxic debt with the Government. The Treasury is understood to back the bank's tentative plans to raise cash from the markets and scale back its exposure to the Government's asset protection scheme, which has been agreed in principle although contracts have yet to be signed, the Times reports.Clive Cowdery's Resolution is inching towards a takeover of Friends Provident after the two sides neared an agreement over the valuation of the life assurer over the weekend. Both sides are trying to reach agreement before the time Friends announces its interim results on Tuesday on a deal that will value the company at £1.86bn on Friday's closing share prices, the FT reports.Britain has not yet shaken off the risk of slumping into a Japan-style "lost decade", the Bank of England will this week indicate as it downgrades its growth forecasts, and casts deflation as a significant threat. The Bank 's Governor, Mervyn King, will use Wednesday's Inflation Report to signal that the risk of falling victim to a debt deflation trap was one of the primary reasons why the Monetary Policy Committee extended its controversial Quantitative Easing programme last week, the Telegraph reports.Senior analysts at two organisations warn today that a huge "second wave" of public-sector redundancies threatens to extinguish any near-term economic recovery. In their latest Labour Market Outlook, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and accountants KPMG say signs of improved employer optimism in the private sector are being offset by mounting pessimism in the public sector. They also caution that there could be a further round of redundancies in the private sector if company profits "continue to be squeezed by fast-rising unit labour costs" the Independent reports.InterContinental Hotels, the world's biggest hotel company, is expected to announce a 40% fall in first-half profits tomorrow. However, it is also expected to increase its estimate of cost savings and to maintain the dividend. The group, which owns such brands as Crowne Plaza and Indigo, is also expected to confirm that it remains on track with a $1bn (£600m) relaunch of its core Holiday Inn brand, the Times reports.Politicians must decide whether to impose restrictions on bankers' bonuses and stop "passing the buck" to regulators, the head of the Financial Services Authority said on Sunday. Hector Sants said it was not his job to judge whether individual bankers were paid too much, as he urged MPs to face up to their responsibilities in the controversy over City excess, the FT reports.Youth unemployment is expected to have topped a million last month amid a rise in the total jobless figure for July of 250,000 to 2.5m. Economists say that the only consolation from the figures that are due out on Wednesday is that the growth rate of unemployment is slowing. In June almost a million young people were out of work after the biggest increase in unemployment since Labour came to power, the Times writes.P&O Ferries, the shipping group that employs 4,000 people in Britain, has warned that it may cut its investment in the UK if the Government fails to resolve the row over backdated business rates. In a letter to Angela Eagle, the former Treasury minister, P&O lambasted the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) - an offshoot of the HM Revenue and Customs - and urged the Government to resolve "this highly unsatisfactory situation". The VOA has inflamed port companies by backdating rates to April 2005, landing them with bills estimated to top £200m, the Telegraph reports.The number of new financial companies seeking UK regulatory authorisation rose 10 per cent in the second quarter, marking the first increase since early 2008. The single largest group among the 282 new registrants with the FSA were independent financial advisers who sell life assurance and other retailproducts. However, the other big group were financial advisory services, including fund managers, private equity shops and corporate finance boutiques, the FT reports. The management of Eckoh are in a boardrooom battle with the speech recognition company's largest shareholder, who they fear is trying to gain control of the group for its own ends. OCS Trading, which started buying into the Aim-listed technology company last autumn and now owns 12% of the stock, has accused the board of poor corporate governance and called for the appointment of a new chairman, the FT reports.
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