Fears of a consumer recession hit stock markets yesterday after Marks & Spencer's third-quarter trading results were described as "shocking" by analysts, while the influential World Economic Forum warned that the UK economy was "particularly vulnerable to financial turmoil", according to The Independent.
The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee will announce its decision on interest rates at noon today against a background of a rapidly cooling economy. Sir Stuart Rose, M&S's chief executive, made little effort yesterday to disguise the pain that the high street is enduring: "It is fair to say we are in for a tough time. The market has woken up to the fact that the economy has caught a cold. "There has been a little bit of hope in the market that things are not as bad...
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