Tax authorities from the UK, US and Australia are to join together to investigate tax evasion from some of the wealthiest people in the world after receiving huge amounts of data from a whistle-blower.

Nationwide Building Society, the U.K.'s largest customer-owned lender, said full-year pretax profit rose 3.4 percent as higher impairments in its property finance business offset growth at its consumer unit.

International Monetary Fund predicted the economy would grow 6.75 per cent in the 2013/2014 financial year, driven by gas production and investment.

South African inflation was unchanged in April as a decline in the value of the rand added to the cost of imports, countering the effect of lower international fuel prices.

Future Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said while his Canadian experience may offer lessons to other countries, he will seek help from his colleagues and not try to run the London-based central bank as a one-man show.