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Its China's Singles Day, also known as "bare sticks holiday". What began as an antidote to Valentine's Day has now become a spending fest, with Chinese consumers shelling out almost £6bn online last year. Matthew Crabbe is Director of Research in the Asia Pacific region for industry researchers Mintel. He told Share Radio that this year's singles day promises to put Black Friday in the shade.

The latest consumer spend data from Barclaycard shows that spending growth hit 5.5% in October. But the data also reveals that consumer confidence in the UK economy dropped from a record high level in September, with only a third of people feeling confident in the UK economy. Paul Lockstone, Managing Director at Barclaycard, joined Share Radio Breakfast to discuss the data.

Welcome to the This is Money and Share Radio podcast, presented in partnership with NS&I. This week all eyes have been on the unreliable boyfriend of banking Mark Carney. Just days after committing to another year in the job the Governor of the Bank of England was thrust into the limelight again for Super Thursday. Meanwhile the High Court ruled parliament must be given a vote on triggering Article 50 casting further speculation on Brexit, and indeed Carney’s role in overseeing it. At any rate the Bank of England’s forecasts did not make for easy listening. Despite some hints of future growth interest rates are set to remain at rock bottom whilst inflation is set to soar leaving many to question just where they can safely invest their money. Editor Simon Lambert and Deputy Editor Adrian Lowrey join Georgie Frost this week to work out what’s on offer also weighing up alternatives such as overpaying the mortgage and investing in premium bonds, which celebrate their 60th birthday this week. Also on this week’s show they look at calls for a Government crackdown on cold calling and the prospect of a post-work economy thanks to the rise of robots and automation. This is Money is presented by Georgie Frost in partnership with NS&I.

How do you feel when you check your finances? Sick to the stomach? We;;, if you are, you are not alone. New research by Atom, the UK's first digital bank, and the Stress Management society has found around a third of people feel nervous or even physically sick when checking their account. Nearly four million of us are lying to our partner about the state of their finances. Neil Shah, Head of the Stress Management Society, joined Robyn Dwyer on the line to explain further.

More than 6.5 million households have either none or very little savings according to new research from The Equality Trust. More than 40 per cent of working households have too little saved to pay even a month's worth of household bills, let alone cover one-off bills such as the typical £540 cost of a replacement boiler. Over a third of households owe more in debt that they have saved. Our reporter Mary Newman spoke to John Hood, from the Equality Trust.

Every week the UK Money Blogger community have a twitter chat to allow all the bloggers - about 100 in total - to share their experiences, tips and questions. This week it's family budgets and blogger Miss Thrifty spoke to Georgie Frost to tell us more.

Georgie Frost is joined in the studio by Personal finance expert Donna Ferguson. Today they discuss the story that Parliament will bring in new rules forcing broadband suppliers to make their price adverts clearer. The Government are now under pressure to introduce a ban on cold calling for pensions. Elsewhere, its bad news for commuters after rail companies warned that passengers are going to face significant disruption over the festive period. All these stories and more on The News Review.

According to a key annual report annual report from energy practise Oliver Wyman, the biggest commodity trading houses have seen profits from reselling oil shipments jump more than 50% over the past five years. Roland Rechsteiner, co-author of "Reimagining Commodity Trading" at Oliver Wyman, talks on their annual oil report.

The countdown to Black Friday has begun. It’s the day when stores offer big discounts, and it has become one of the top shopping events of the year, both in the US and UK. But it's divided opinion, not just among customers but firms too, with many saying the real damage is being done to small businesses. IMRG and Barclaycard have released a new report on how SME's can maximise their Black Friday takings, and Matt Cox has been hearing from Barclaycard's Head of Small Business, Greg Liset.

Should we take our state pension early? Under new government proposals, we all could be given that choice. A new report has outlined changes that could move the state pension age up or even allow people to take their pension early. To find out, Share Radio reporter, Tom Hill, spoke to Richard Parkin from Fidelity.