Mark Carney’s hope is that he can successfully decouple gilt and US Treasury bond yields

Construction output  is still 16 per cent below its pre-recession peak

The Bank of England kept its monetary stimulus policy on hold yesterday as a key survey pointed to an accelerating pick-up in manufacturing output.

Unemployment in the eurozone fell for the first time in two years in June, but City analysts warned that the single currency's economic problems were far from resolved.

Outlook Nationwide will have longer than Barclays to meet its 3 per cent leverage target. The mutual has to reach the target by 2015. But the management isn't very happy about it. Chief executive, Graham Beale, complained that the leverage ratio set by the regulator at the Bank of England is "crude" and "unsophisticated" because it ignores the fact that Nationwide's balance sheet is full of safe residential mortgages. The trouble with this analysis is that no one really knows in advance of a crisis which assets are safe and which aren't. That's why it's prudent for all lenders to hold decent capital buffers to cover unexpected losses.

Outlook It has emerged that the Publicis/Omnicom merger was conceived at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January after a (figurative) roll in the snow between rival chief executives Maurice Lévy and John Wren.

Outlook When regulators at the Bank of England decided earlier this year that Barclays and Nationwide should increase their capital buffers to cover at least 3 per cent of their total assets, the two lenders fought back vigorously.

Economic View: Looking at the numbers, the outlook could actually be even worse for China

A career civil servant has been appointed deputy governor of the Bank of England in charge of financial stability. Sir Jon Cunliffe, currently the UK's permanent representative to the European Union, will replace Paul Tucker from November.