At Last the Results are in……

Bureaux de change offering €0.99 for £1.

For the first time in at least three years, British holidaymakers have found that a pound buys less than a euro at some bureaux de change. On Tuesday this week, exchange desks at two airports were offering just 99 euro cents for a pound, according to foreign currency specialists Caxton FX. MoneyCorp at Stansted was offering €0.9915, while ICE's rate at Luton was €0.990. The pound hit its lowest level in three years on Monday. Sterling has recovered slightly since then, on the back of news about rising inflation in the UK. Nevertheless, the value of the pound has fallen by 12% against the euro since the vote to leave the EU, and about 10% against the US dollar. "An already weak pound has faced additional woes recently, due to increased stimulus measures and disappointing data from the UK," said Alexandra Russell-Oliver, an analyst with Caxton FX. On Wednesday, several supermarkets were offering €1.13 to the pound.

Co-operative Bank warns of Brexit impact.

Co-op Bank has said economic uncertainty following the UK's Brexit vote may hamper growth. Market conditions are "challenging" for retail banks, it said. The bank reported a narrowing of half-yearly losses to £177m but said "legacy issues" would continue to hit its financial performance until it has finished a rescue plan. The bank almost collapsed in 2013, after bad property loans contributed to a £1.5bn hole in its finances. "Today's market conditions are challenging for all retail-focused banks and the macroeconomic uncertainty following the result of the EU referendum, including the likelihood of lower-for-longer interest rates, may restrict our ability to grow revenue in the short term," said chief executive Niall Booker. The Bank of England lowered interest rates at the beginning of August to a record low, as part of measures to stimulate the UK economy after the Brexit vote. Co-op Bank said the vote could also lead to a contraction in the UK property market, affecting mortgage loan growth. It added that reductions in income could force it to reduce costs and spending on projects, while higher unemployment and lower property prices could make it harder for the bank to recover the full value of some of its loans.

Brexit pushes Opel to cut staff hours in Germany.

German carmaker Opel plans to cut its workers' hours this year because it expects Brexit to hurt its UK sales. A spokesman for Opel said about 5,000 workers at its Ruesselsheim and Eisenach factories would be affected. Opel is owned by US car giant GM. The pound has weakened against the dollar and euro since the UK's 23 June vote to leave the EU, adding costs for firms exporting to the UK. The UK is the biggest market for Opel's Insignia and Corsa models. The Opel cars are sold under the Vauxhall brand in the UK. The spokesman did not specify how many fewer hours Opel staff in Germany would have to work. In late May the pound sterling was worth $1.46 and €1.3, but now it is worth $1.3 and €1.15.

Brexit: IDS urges EU exit talks 'as soon as possible'.

Prime Minister Theresa May should begin formal negotiations for the UK to leave the EU "as soon as possible", Iain Duncan Smith has said. Writing in the Sun on Sunday, the Brexit campaigner accused Remain supporters of trying to delay a triggering of Article 50, which starts the two-year process to leave the EU. It comes after Mrs May said she would not trigger Article 50 this year. Mr Duncan Smith said she should start the process "early" in 2017. Waiting for forthcoming elections to take place in Germany and France would be "another attempt to turn this referendum result into a 'neverendum'," the former work and pensions secretary said. "For too long membership of the EU sapped our sense of self-worth and our self-confidence. Now we have the chance to believe in Britain again," he wrote. "Let us leave as soon as possible, so that we can get on and make the most of our new found independence."

Tourism 'will hold up' after Brexit.

Tourism in the UK will "hold up well" in 2016 after the Brexit vote but fewer jobs than expected will be created in the longer term, executives have said. The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) is predicting growth in the sector of 3.6% in the UK over the year. This is higher than predicted global growth in the sector of 3.1%. It said falling domestic spending would be offset by international visitors loosening the purse strings owing to a more favourable exchange rate. The WTTC said that, despite the initial solidity of the sector in the UK, there would be some added pressures in the next few years owing to the UK's vote to leave the EU. It said that the benefit in terms of overseas visitors' spending from a weaker pound would wear off in 2018 to 2020. General economic growth in the UK would be weaker and that would affect the industry. "By 2020, we now expect that the UK travel and tourism sector will support 1.88 million direct jobs, which is approximately 75,000 fewer jobs than forecast in the annual update at the start of the year," it said in its latest economic update.

Shoppers' credit card use unaffected by Brexit, say banks.

The UK is a nation of shoppers unfazed by the EU referendum result when spending on plastic, says a trade body representing the major banks. Credit card use for purchases in shops has been highlighted by the British Bankers' Association (BBA) as the key to rising borrowing on cards. There were 168 million purchases on credit cards in July - the first full month since the Brexit vote. This was higher than in June and the average of the previous six months. However, there was a drop in the number of mortgages approved for house purchases. "This month's statistics are the first set of borrowing figures gathered since the EU referendum. The data does not currently suggest borrowing patterns have been significantly affected by the Brexit vote, but it is still early days. Many borrowing decisions will also have been taken before the referendum," said Rebecca Harding, chief economist at the BBA. "We are also clearly still a nation of shoppers and the Brexit vote has done nothing to change the fact that we use credit cards for short-term purchases. Strong retail sales figures appear closely associated with strong consumer credit growth."

[Much talk is going on both in Parliament and at the G20 to flesh out exactly what the government means when the say ‘Brexit means Brexit’. Unfortunately we’re still not a whole lot clearer what that means. Meanwhile the Brexiteers are talking up the economy attempting to make out that everything is rosy in the garden and we’re going from strength to strength. Personally all I can hear are raised voices which get louder and louder anytime someone points out that not everything seems to be going in the right direction. We shall see soon enough won’t we….]

All details above from BBC News website.