UK

Multi-asset managers are finding renewed opportunities in UK government bonds as they try to eke out value for their portfolios at the start of 2014.

FIVE THINGS

Britain's growth rate could reach as high as 4% this year as the recovery accelerates, economists have said.

FIVE THINGS

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's has retained an AAA sovereign credit rating for the UK but says there is still a one in three chance of a downgrade next year.

The UK economy has been tipped to breach its pre-crisis peak as early as next year, instead of 2016, as previously forecast, by UK business network the British Chambers of Commerce.

Former BBC economics editor and now J.P. Morgan Asset Management's chief market strategist for the UK and Europe Stephanie Flanders give her run down of what investors can expect in the year ahead.

UK EQUITIES

The UK's state pension is the second worst in the developed world, with only Mexico giving OAPs a worse average salary replacement rate in retirement, a study has found.

US futures firm MF Global Holding has been ordered to pay $1.2bn (£740m) in restitution to its customers over its collapse.