UK house prices face 'mixed picture' - papers

House prices in the UK rose by 1.8% in October compared with the previous month - but this followed a big drop a month earlier, the Halifax said.

The lender, part of the Lloyds Banking Group, said that the less volatile three-month on three-month comparison showed property values dropped by 1.2%, writes the BBC.

The average home cost £164,919, according to the survey.

Monthly changes in prices had been a mixed picture, the lender said, but it is not predicting a sustained fall.

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Lloyds new chief's pay linked to lending

António Horta-Osório, the surprise new chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, will have his bonus linked to small businesses lending targets, after last-minute demands made by George Osborne, reports the Telegraph.

Mr Horta-Osório, chief executive of Santander UK, will join Lloyds in January and succeed Eric Daniels in March.

The Portuguese banker was told at a meeting with George Osborne last week that part of his £8.3m potential pay package will depend on him boosting business lending.

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Housing market loses £500m as 'desperate' sellers slash prices

Families trying to sell their homes have slashed a massive £500m off the asking price since the beginning of August, research has revealed.

It warned many people are becoming increasingly 'desperate' to sell amid fears that house prices could be set to plunge, or because their family finances are at breaking point, writes the Mail.

The research found more than one in three sellers have cut the asking price 'at least once' since it was put up for sale this year.

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State workers to pay more for pensions

Millions of public sector workers will have to pay more into their pensions and retire on less in a purge on ' unsustainable' gold-plated funds.

Former Labour Cabinet minister Lord Hutton will today take the axe to state employees' retirement funds, which have created a £1trn black hole in the public finances, writes the Mail.

Whitehall sources expect him to propose a large increase in pension contributions - as much as 2% of salary for higher paid workers.

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Emerging economies should spend surpluses on their own people

Fast-growing economies in the east should spend the vast savings accumulated through trade on their own people rather than use it to accumulate bonds and shares in the west, an influential think tank said today.

The organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) warned that policies designed to rebalance currencies would fail unless countries adopted more far-reaching and fundamental reforms, writes the Guardian.

The Paris-based research group, often described as the rich nations' think tank, said in a webcast that world leaders needed to go beyond discussions about currencies at the G20 summit in South Korea next week and examine conflicts that hold back growth in the world economy.

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BHP's bid for Potash Corporation blocked by Canadian government

BHP's $39bn (£24bn) hostile bid for Potash Corporation was blocked by the Canadian government last night.

In a surprise move, Canadian industry minister Tony Clement stepped in, saying that he was not satisfied the bid was of "net benefit to Canada", writes the Guardian.

Had it gone through, the deal would have been the largest corporate takeover this year. Potash had rejected the deal - saying BHP's bid undervalued the group - and the group had also won support from politicians in Saskatchewan, where it is based.

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Upturn eases burden on Bank of England

Pressure on the Bank of England to announce a further round of quantitative easing in the UK lessened yesterday.

With the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee due to announce its latest decision on QE at noon today, the first indications of economic growth in the fourth quarter suggested a continued, if slower, pace of recovery than seen in the previous six months, writes the Independent.

The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (Cips) said its surveys of the manufacturing, construction and services sector, which cover the bulk of the economy, indicated a "lower risk of renewed downturn" and the equivalent of a quarterly growth rate of 0.4%  in October, the second successive month of improvement.

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