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Within the Spring Statement at 12.30pm, Philip Hammond is also expected to provide details on taxing the revenue of technology giants such as Facebook and Google.

BBC economics editor Kamal Ahmed writes: "That is a substantial change to the present tax on profits, which the technology companies have - perfectly legally - largely avoided in the UK, as they pay the bulk of their taxes in America."

For more on the story, click here.

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The Office for National Statistics has announced that pork pies will no longer be included in the basket it uses to calculate the consumer price index measure of inflation - but exercise leggings are.

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Shares in convenience food group Greencore have slumped more than 20% after it issued a profits warning this morning.

Boss Patrick Coveney has committed to spending half his time in the US to help oversee a massive restructuring 15 months after it snapped up American rival Peacock Foods.

He said the company will stop fresh production at its Rhode Island facility this month to stem losses.

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French Connection has revealed it received an unwanted takeover approach from an unnamed US suitor last year.

Chairman Stephen Marks said: "We entered a period of full due diligence and negotiation over a number of months" but "this did not lead to an offer for the group".

Announcing an annual loss of £600,000 on Tuesday he said that the fashion chain is "very close" to returning to profit.

EON, the German power and gas giant, said it will cut up to 5,000 jobs as part of its takeover of the renewables business Innogy from rival RWE.

EON said it expects the Innogy takeover to generate around €600m-€800m in annual savings from 2022 but said that the "integration process" will lead to "a reduction of a maximum of 5,000 jobs" out of a total of 70,000 jobs.

An independent chicken shop says it is being "bullied" by Nando's because the chain is "threatened" by its success.

The chicken giant has launched legal action, accusing Fernando's in Reading of copying its name and images.

But the Berkshire eatery's director said TV show Take Me Out was the real inspiration behind the name.

Read the full story here.

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While the FTSE 100 remains flat, down 0.07% to 7209.46, paving company Marshalls leads the market winners, up 2.32% at 467.2p.

It's closely followed by Antofagasta, which has risen 2.30% to 908.2p.

Leading the losers is Computercenter, which has dropped 4.26% to 1080p.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

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David Green, director-general of the Serious Fraud Office stands down from his role next month, but has plenty of criticism for his predecessor in the hot job.

He's been telling the BBC's Today programme that morale when he joined in 2012 was low.

"There were some well-documented management irregularities, pay-offs that hadn't been authorised and consultancy expenditure which meant we ended up before the public accounts committee," he says.

"I felt the right thing to do was to put the SFO back to what it was meant to be, an active enforcement and investigation enforcement agency."

The FTSE 100 has opened up 2.97 points at 7,217.73.

The FTSE 250 is down 2.09 points at 20,115.44.

The Treasury has produced a handy guide, complete with daffodils...

BBC Radio 5 live

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Ahead of an expected "litter levy", Barry Pamplin, technical director of consultancy The Packhub tells Wake Up to Money why it might not be so easy to change the packaging on foods such as crisps.

He says: "One of the problems that we’ve got now is that our whole shopping habits and our whole retail experience has changed. People do not visit their shop every day, they tend to go to an out of town retail outlet and it could be they’re shopping for a week, they could be shopping for two or three weeks.

"The whole supply chain of how we receive our food and get hold of our food has changed…and for us to go back and the change the way that we package food would need a whole shift in behaviours."

Image source, Antofagasta

Chilean miner Antofagasta has reported a rise in annual sales and profits following higher copper prices.

Full-year revenue rose by 31.1% to $4.7bn while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation grew by 59.1% to $2.5bn.

Antofagasta chief executive Iván Arriagada said: "We have continued to invest through the cycle while maintaining our focus on cost discipline and operating performance.

"As a result, as copper prices rose in 2017 Antofagasta had another successful year completing the development of Encuentro Oxides, meeting our safety target of zero fatalities and achieving both our production and cost guidance."

Image source, French Connection

Losses at fashion retailer French Connection slimmed to £600,000 in the year to the end of January, an improvement of £3.1m on the previous year.

The company closed another 11 stores in the year but opened a new concept store in Manchester.

Stephen Marks, chief executive warned: "The retail market in which we are operating in the UK is unlikely to improve in the near future."

However he said he was confident the company would soon return to profitability.

Revenues climbed 0.5% to £154m.

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The Serious Fraud Office is in talks to change its funding arrangements that might end its need to ask the Treasury for one-off payments to prosecute “blockbuster” cases.

David Green, the SFO’s director-general, confirmed the talks were underway, but that any final decision was in the hands of the Treasury.

The SFO, which has a basic annual budget of £31m to maintain its 500 staff, has since the financial crisis received more than £100m in top-up funding to fund big cases, including the investigations into Rolls-Royce, Tesco (pictured) and Barclays.

Critics have said the agency needs a larger budget rather than having to rely on case-by-case funding.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

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Has GKN done enough to fend off the hostile bid from takeover specialist Melrose?

Laura Lambie, senior investment director at Investec Wealth tells the BBC's Today programme that she thinks it has done enough.

She says: "I think it’s defence has been robust enough to repel Melrose, particularly selling off some non-core parts of the business and giving money back to shareholders."

Image source, Fever-Tree

Fever-Tree, the maker of upmarket drink mixers, has reported a sharp rise in sales for the full-year from £102m to £170m.

Pre-tax profit also rose from £34m to £56m for the 12 months to 31 December following a strong Christmas.

BBC Radio 5 live

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Economics professor Gulcin Ozkan from University of York says she hopes Philip Hammond will not only be looking at short term issues in his Spring Statement.

Prof Ozkan told 5 live's Wake Up to Money:"What I’m expecting and hoping is he will identify key areas that are challenges in terms of the long term fiscal issues.

"I think he will present his statement as good news and it is good news to some extent.

"I'm not expecting a huge giveaway in any way as he has been very, very cautious in pointing to the importance of the debt levels."