Pound dives as Mark Carney gives Mansion House speech – business live

Onto fiscal issues.

Hammond says the Conservatives are committed to keeping taxes as low as possible, to encourage growth.

He’s also opposed to raising borrowing to fund current consumption, as that only passes the bill onto future generations.

Stronger growth is the only sustainable way to deliver better public services and jobs, says Hammond.

I thought we had won that argument, but the general election has shown that we must make a new case for “a market economy and sound money” says Hammond (a nod to Jeremy Corbyn’s better than expected performance).

Philip Hammond is speaking now.

He begins by thanking the City of London corporation for rescheduling today’s event, after the appalling tragedy that was unfolding at Grenfell Tower.

The chancellor says that Britain has suffered a series of shocking events in recent weeks – terror attacks at Manchester, London Bridge, Finsbury Park yesterday, and at Grenfell.

Grenfell was an “unimaginable tragedy”, Hammond continues, and his thought are with all those affected by it.

The immediate priority is to make sure that that the survivors have everything they need.

But that’s isn’t all.

We must also get to the bottom of the failure at Grenfell and take decisive action to make sure nothing like this happens again.

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and business.

The great and the good of the City of London are heading to Mansion House this morning, to hear from Bank of England governor Mark Carney and chancellor Philip Hammond.

The two men, who between them handle the UK’s fiscal and monetary levers, are expected to outline their plans to protect Britain’s growth prospects in the face of Brexit.

These speeches were originally scheduled for last Thursday night, before the City of London corporation cancelled the Mansion House event altogether following the Grenfell Tower disaster.

It was hardly appropriate to have City grandees hobnobbing in black tie and quaffing expensive vintages.

So instead, it has been rescheduled as a breakfast event this morning.

This is the first time we’ve heard from Carney since the Bank of England was dramatically split over interest rates last week. Three policymakers voted to hike borrowing costs, startling the City, while five voted for no-change.

Hammond’s speech will also be closely watched. He had been expected use last week’s speech to argue against a Hard Brexit, and call on prime minister Theresa May to ensure Britain gets a significant “transition period” after Brexit, to help businesses adapt.

Over the weekend, the chancellor hinted that he might ease up on austerity following the Conservative Party’s election bloody nose.

As Reuters put it:

Hammond had looked set to lose his job until May’s election flop. He has now re-emerged as big business’ leading proponent in government and might provide more details on Tuesday on how he thinks the two-year Brexit process should run.

Hammond may also give more details of his budget plans after saying on Sunday that he was “not deaf” to the weariness of voters to nearly a decade of spending cuts for many services and tight controls on public sector pay.

Also coming up today…

The other big news this morning is that the Serious Fraud Office has charged Barclays, and four former top executives, over its fundraising from Qatar during the 2008 financial crisis.

We should also get more details of Argentina’s innovative plan to issue 100-year bonds, despite having defaulted on its debts more than once….

Here’s today’s agenda:

• From 8am: Philip Hammond’s speech at Mansion House
• 8.30am: Mark Carney’s speech at Mansion House
• 9am: Eurozone current account for April