Here are the stories making the business headlines across Scotland and the UK this morning.
Shell expects Penguins vessel to arrive in North Sea in 2024
Shell expects its Penguins floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel to arrive in the UK North Sea in 2024.
Start-up on the project is expected the same year, a spokesperson for the energy giant said.
Meanwhile, Shell’s controversial Jackdaw development is also moving closer to start-up. Jackdaw’s jacket was towed onto the field for installation during the third quarter of this year.
Lying around 150 miles north-east of Shetland, Penguins is a redevelopment of a former tie-back field to the Brent Charlie hub.
The project will see a total of eight wells drilled and tied back to the newbuild FPSO, Shell’s first new manned vessel in UK waters in 30 years.
Read more in today's Press and Journal.
Oil costs drop to lowest level since July
The battle against inflation could receive a boost - if a big fall in global oil costs is sustained.
Brent crude futures fell by 4% on Tuesday to levels not seen since July on the back of data that suggested demand would continue to slide in China - the world's second biggest economy.
Brent was trading at $81 a barrel while US crude also slid to $77, registering declines above $3 for each.
The collapse left Brent below $84 a barrel at the US market close for the first time since prices spiked in the wake of the deadly attack on Israel by Hamas on 7 October.
Surge in job seekers after companies begin redundancies
The number of job seekers is surging as companies are turning to redundancies to shrink their workforces.
A wobbling economy and high interest rates have pushed up the number of job hunters for the eighth month in a row, according to a closely watched survey by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC).
The figure rose at a much sharper pace in October than in the previous month, underlining the weakening jobs market.
Businesses are increasingly moving from hiring freezes to layoffs, the survey suggests, noting frequent reports of redundancy rounds and restructuring efforts.
It comes after a number of big companies have started making mass staff cuts.
UK food inflation may be gone by Easter, claims boss of major retailer
Food inflation could be all but gone by Easter, according to the owner of Kingsmill bread, Twinings tea and Silver Spoon sugar – as long as there are no further shocks to the global system.
George Weston, the chief executive of Associated British Foods (ABF), which also owns the Primark budget clothing chain, said: “Food price inflation hit 20% last year and by the back of 2024 I think it will be close to zero.
“I would not be surprised if by the middle of next year, and even by Easter, most of the big price inflation had gone away,” he added, with the caveat that there were no further major problems beyond the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine.
Reporting a 25% rise in pre-tax profits to £1.3bn after sales rose 15% to £19.75bn, Weston said that while inflation remained in some commodities including sugar, tomatoes and onions, key ingredients including cereals and edible oils had already come down in price that would feed into a variety of other products such as poultry.