Thanks for joining me. Inflation has remained stubborn as the the Bank of England prepares to announce its next interest rate decision.

The consumer prices index was unchanged in August from 2.2pc in July, according to the Office for National Statistics.

It comes ahead of the Bank of England’s next monetary policy meeting on Thursday, where it is expected to hold rates at 5pc.

5 things to start your day

1) Shrinking workforce costing taxpayers £16bn a year | Lost tax revenue from worklessness compounding impact of inflated benefits bill, warn economists

2) Lord Mandelson slams Tory ‘boycott’ of China | The Labour peer said it is time for Britain and China to ‘stop throwing mud’ at one another

3) UK’s biggest supermarket could urge shoppers to replace unhealthy purchases | Tesco risks privacy backlash with proposal to use Clubcard data to influence customers

4) The Guardian in talks to sell The Observer to former BBC News chief | Potential sale comes as newspaper reveals it burned through tens of millions of pounds in cash last year

5) Jeremy Warner: Our ‘iron chancellor’ is set for a humiliating climbdown | Labour has dug itself into the most frightful hole by suggesting it can live within existing fiscal constraints without raising taxes

What happened overnight 

Asian shares were mostly higher as markets prepare for the US Federal Reserve’s first cut to interest rates in more than four years.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.8pc in morning trading to 36,482.21. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 stood virtually unchanged at 8,139.30. 

South Korea’s Kospi added 0.1pc to 8,139.30. The Shanghai Composite index edged up nearly 0.2pc to 2,709.06, while trading was closed in Hong Kong for a national holiday. 

On Tuesday night, Wall Street ended nearly flat after hitting record highs earlier in the day. 

The S&P 500 rose to an all-time high at one point in the session, but flattened in afternoon trading and closed only 0.03pc higher at 5,634.58. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.04pc, to 41,606.18.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite bucked the Wall Street trend to close 0.2pc higher at 17,628.06.

In the bond market, the yield benchmark 10-year US Treasury notes rose 3.64pc, from 3.62pc late on Monday.