Helia Ebrahimi , Economics Correspondent

Thousands of firms up and down the country are routinely paying their female staff far less than men: unsurprising, perhaps – but the sheer extent of the gender pay gap is now starkly revealed ahead of tonight’s deadline for firms to declare their figures. From the results submitted so far – men across Britain are…

So what impact will this have on the simmering trade war? Beijing’s announcement of steep import duties on US products like pork, wine and fruit will affect goods worth more than three billion dollars- as China vowed it would protect its interests. Our economics correspondent Helia Ebrahimi reports.

The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn appears to have deleted his personal Facebook account as the row about anti-Semitism in the party escalated again. It’s just days since he was accused of belonging to several Facebook groups where some members had posted anti-Semitic content. Our correspondent Helia Ebrahimi is brings us the latest.

Not so much a gap – more of a chasm: the difference in gender pay across the public sector is worse than those revealed so far by private firms, according to new figures. Today is the final deadline for public bodies to reveal pay levels for men and women – and it reveals a startling…

The US media giant Comcast, which owns NBC and Universal Pictures, has launched a £22 billion bid for Sky, which could frustrate Rupert Murdoch’s efforts to take over the company. He’s already been the subject of concerns from the competition regulator about the amount of influence he would have over Britain’s media. Comcast says the only…

In the latest revelation in the debate over gender pay it has emerged that women working at Barclays are paid an average 48% less than their male counterparts. It is one of the most glaring pay gaps revealed so far as companies continue to submit the average pay of their male and female employees to…

The squeeze on the cost of living continues, as inflation sticks at 3 per cent for January, the same as it was in December.

US stock markets are continuing to fall, ending a week which has seen the biggest global sell-off of shares for six years. And there have been losses across Europe’s stock exchanges too, including London, where the FTSE index of leading shares closed half a per cent lower. So when will the volatility calm down?

What goes up must come down, and there’s been another tumultuous day on markets around the world, with frantic trading following two days of heavy losses. On Wall Street, prices briefly rebounded before taking another tumble, while in London the FTSE ended the day almost 200 points lower. It’s all been fuelled by concern over…

Regulators and government officials are holding urgent talks on the huge construction group Carillion  and its half billion pound pensions deficit. The firm, which holds major outsourced government contracts, including the HS2 high-speed rail link, is struggling to avoid collapse. Unions are urging the government to step in and protect the thousands of jobs which…

Christmas on the high street has been very much a case of winner takes it all. Sainsbury’s today, like other big supermarkets, reported a rise in sales. Cash-strapped consumers seem to have spent what money they do have on food and drink. But some of the general retailers have seen a big drop in spending.…

Until a few days ago, you might have been kicking yourself for not investing in Bitcoin this year. The value of the cyber currency had soared since January. But now Bitcoin has gone into freefall, with the price tumbling even further in the last few hours. So has it finally run out of steam?

Bitcoin: it’s the crypto-currency which has no physical manifestation, but which has spectacularly soared in price over the last year. It’s brought vast wealth to a few individuals, just a thousand people are thought to own 40% of the entire market. It’s got a bad reputation too, described variously as a massive scam, a dangerous…

The financial watchdog has revealed four advice firms have now stopped carrying out pension transfers for British Steel pension scheme members after concern over the sustainability of their advice. Six more firms will be investigated by the FCA this week.

Steel workers in south Wales have attacked what they say has been aggressive advice over their pensions, which they say could cost each of them thousands. Their pension scheme was closed when the owners of the steel works in Port Talbot, Tata Steel, cut a deal with the government to keep the plant open last…