Hollingsworth Daily Post

• China says its economy has maintained robust growth in the third quarter of 2010, albeit at a slightly lower rate.Official figures show a drop from just over 10% growth to 9.6%, still far ahead of any other major economy.The Chinese government has been taking measures to cool a credit boom in order to achieve more sustainable growth levels.Meanwhile consumer prices rose at the fastest pace in nearly two years in September, official data showed.
• Toyota has announced a recall of more than 1.5 million cars worldwide over brake and fuel pump defects.The carmaker said the decision affected certain Avalon, Highlander and Lexus cars, including 740,000 cars in the US, 600,000 in Japan and 17,000 in the UK.It wants to ensure that fluid does not leak from the brake master cylinder, causing the warning light to turn on.The fault could cause the brake pedal to feel spongy, and braking performance to "gradually decline".
• Credit Suisse's profits fell 74% in the third quarter, thanks to choppy stock markets hitting its investment bank.The Swiss bank earned 609m Swiss francs ($630m, £400m) during the three months, down from 2.4bn francs a year ago.Investment banking revenues fell by 30%, mainly because of low client activity in the group's equity advisory and underwriting businesses.Stock markets took a battering over the summer because of fears over eurozone debt and a US double-dip recession.
• Chancellor George Osborne has defended the "fairness" of his UK spending cuts after Labour claims they were reckless and would hit the poorest hardest.He told the BBC that, including Budget measures, the top 10% of earners would be hit hardest but everyone was making a contribution to cutting the deficit.He said "the path to economic ruin" lay ahead if the deficit was not tackled.
• UK retail sales fell again September, the second month in succession they have declined, official data has shown.Sales last month were 0.2% lower than August, led by falls in clothing and car fuel sales, said the Office for National Statistics (ONS).The ONS also revised down August's decline, saying sales that month slipped by 0.7% compared with its original calculation of 0.5%.The data comes as a number of retailers have warned of weak trading conditions.
• Apple is cashing in on the popularity of its iPhone and iPad to boost demand for its oldest product, the Macintosh.The company announced that its popular app store for the iPhone and the iPad would soon be coming to its laptops.It also launched a revamped MacBook Air at an event at its headquarters.The computer is seen as a marriage of what Apple has learned from desktop computing and mobile devices. Like the iPad, the Air will have no hard drive and rely on flash memory.

BBC Business News 21 October 2010