Here are the business stories making the headlines across Scotland and the UK this morning.
Unemployment rate dips as pay growth slows
The rate of unemployment has fallen slightly and pay growth has slowed, the latest official figures show.
The jobless rate fell to 4% between June and August, down from the previous figure of 4.1%, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
Regular pay, excluding bonuses, grew at an annual pace of 4.9% between June and August.
Kate Forbes meets UK Government after request for RAF plane to fly Alex Salmond’s body back to Scotland
The UK Government is facing growing calls to use an RAF plane to fly Alex Salmond’s body home to Scotland as “quickly as possible”, with Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes stepping in.
Ms Forbes is understood to have met with the UK Government on Monday morning to push the case after his shock death in North Macedonia.
The veteran Aberdeenshire SNP politician lived in the Buchan village of Strichen with his wife Moira where tributes have poured in from locals.
Read the full story in P&J.
Red tape is ‘killing’ Britain, warns ex-Google chief
The former chief executive of Google has said that excessive bureaucracy and red tape is “killing” Britain.
Eric Schmidt told the Prime Minister that he would benefit from having a “minister of anti-regulation” as he aims to kick-start growth in the British economy while meeting green ambitions.
Speaking at Sir Keir Starmer’s flagship investment summit, Mr Schmidt said: “The cost of capital and the delay is killing you, and furthermore you’re not going to achieve your 2030 energy goal, which is laudable, without fixing this."
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Bank of England currency printer De La Rue in £300m sale
An American predator is close to sealing a £300m swoop on a division of De La Rue, the Bank of England’s banknote printer, in a move that will herald a break-up of the historic company.
Sky News can exclusively reveal that Crane NXT, a New York-listed industrial technology group, was on Monday night close to finalising a takeover of De La Rue's authentication arm.
If confirmed, the purchase will leave the London-listed company as a pure-play currency printer which counts more than 40 central banks around the world among its clients.
InPost to take full control of UK distribution group Menzies
InPost, the operator of tens of thousands of parcel delivery lockers across Europe, is closing in on a deal to take full ownership of Menzies Distribution Group, the British logistics company.
Sky News has learnt that InPost is in very advanced talks to acquire the 70% shareholding in Menzies that it does not already own.
Sources said a deal - the value of which could not be ascertained on Monday - was likely to be announced this week.
Google turns to nuclear to power AI data centres
Google has signed a deal to use small nuclear reactors to generate the vast amounts of energy needed to power its artificial intelligence (AI) data centres.
The company says the agreement with Kairos Power will see it start using the first reactor this decade and bring more online by 2035.
The companies did not give any details about how much the deal is worth or where the plants will be built.
Read the full story here.