Here are the top business stories making the headlines in the morning newspapers.

Profits up at Knight

Property developer James Barrack said the Aberdeen market is currently stymied by inflationary pressures, but that the longer-term prospects are good.

A "perfect storm" of "crazy" construction costs and labour shortages is getting in the way of speculative development at the moment, he said.

But he added that high oil prices and the Granite City's historic track record for bucking economic trends elsewhere in the UK offer grounds for optimism once current problems are "ironed out".

Mr Barrack was speaking to the Press and Journal after his Knight Property Group revealed a jump in profits.

Accounts lodged at Companies House show the firm's holding company made pre-tax profits of £2.6million in 2021, up from just over £2.4million in the previous 12 months.

Turnover fell to £21.5million in the latest period, from £39.1million previously, as Knight made less cash from property sales.

Stellar performance hailed by Parkmead

Aberdeen's Parkmead Group has reported a year of stellar performance from its shares in Dutch gas assets.

The firm said it had seen "record gas revenues" ahead of expectations as assets continued to perform well.

It secured additional volumes last year in a royalty deal with operator Vermillion Energy, which increased the company's "effective financial interest" in the onshore Drenthe IV, Drenthe V and Andel Va licences from 7.5% to 15%.

As a result, it now expects the portfolio to generate revenue in excess of £12.4million in the year to June 30, 2022.

Energy Voice said this was ahead of board expectations.

Bigger interest-rate hikes on the way?

The Bank of England has hinted at bigger interest rate rises as it vows to bring inflation back down to 2%.

The central bank's focus was getting prices down and making life more affordable again, its chief economist Huw Pill said yesterday.

In May, UK inflation hit 9.1%, its highest level in 40 years. And the interest rate is at a 13-year record high of 1.25%.

The BBC states that Mr Pill said he was open to voting for an interest rate rise above 0.25%.

This is the same figure the Bank of England decided on for the last five interest rate increases in a row.

Amazon being investigated

Online retail giant Amazon is under investigation in the UK over concerns that the company is giving an unfair advantage to certain sellers on its marketplace.

The markets watchdog said that Amazon's practices may be anti-competitive and leading to worse deals for customers.

The investigation will centre on how Amazon decides which products are given preferential listing spots.

Amazon said it believed it had always worked hard to help small businesses selling on Amazon to succeed,

The BBC says this investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) follows a similar probe launched by the European Commission in May.

The online retailer not only hosts the marketplace where independent businesses can advertise their products, but it also sells its own products there too.

According the CMA, Amazon may be giving preference to its own retail business and disadvantaging third-party sellers.

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