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21.04 Microsoft posts Q2 revenues of $20.9bn. IBM Q4 revenues $29.5bn versus predicted $29.71bn.
21.00 BREAKING NEWS...
Google has reported revenues of $10.58bn for the quarter ended December 31. Google-owned sites generated $7.29bn. Company has 90m users globally. Google shares fall 10pc in after-hours trading. Net revenue, excluding traffic acquisition costs, came in at $8.13bn. Analysts were expecting revenue of $8.43bn. Company held back by slowdown in Europe.
20.59 Spain may miss its deficit target of 4.4pc of GDP in 2012 amid signs that economic growth assumptions may fall short, the country?s Budget Minister Cristobal Montoro said.
Montoro said Spain needs two years to generate a level of economic growth that will create jobs.
20.55 More on those Greek debt talks. The IIF, which represents the private creditors, says talks will continue on Friday, but progress was made today.
20.39 Austria has issued 50-year bonds for the first time in its history, the federal financing agency has said. It wants to raise ?2bn. It is also offering ?3bn of 10-year bonds.
20.36 Andrew Lilico, an economist with Europe Economics, has written a great blog for our website, entitled Capitalism is moral when lenders bear responsibility.
20.25 David Rubenstein, the billionaire co-founder of Carlyle Group private equity company, is donating $7.5m to restore the Washington Monument, which has been closed since it was damaged by an earthquake in August.
The former policy adviser to President Jimmy Carter plugged the project's funding gap, matching Congress, which has allocated $7.5m to repair the monument.
20.11 Another day, another retail casualty. Britain's biggest motorbike dealer is crashing into administration. George White sells Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Piaggio bikes from five dealerships.
Restructuring experts Deloitte were appointed to the business and confirmed 61 of 70 jobs had gone.
19.57 Slovenia is proposing former central bank chief Mitja Gaspari as its candidate to the European Central Bank's executive board, Slovenian news agency STA has reported.
Gaspari, currently European affairs and development minister in the outgoing Slovenian government, will run for the post left vacant when the mandate of Spain's Jose Manuel Gonzalez-Paramo expires in May, STA said.
Gaspari, 60, is the second candidate for the post along with Spanish lawyer Antonio Sainz de Vicuna.
Gaspari headed Slovenia's central bank from 2001 to 2007, during which the tiny former Yugoslav state joined the eurozone.
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19.29 Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg has said he hopes China, Brazil and Russia will contribute to the IMF.
Chancellor George Osborne (right) with Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg (centre)
He adds that southern Europe will get worse before it improves.
19.25 Italian presecutors are including S&P's downgrade of the country in their ongoing probe into the impact of the rating agency's reports on share prices.
19.02 Apple's market cap has passed $400bn... which means it is now worth more than Greece.
19.00 Merkel, Sarkozy and Monti have posponed tomorrow's meeting in Rome until February.
18.58 So, the key points in the EU fiscal draft are: Eurozone country can only apply for ESM help if it has started ratification of fiscal compact treaty ? combined lending capacity of eurozone's temporary and permanent bailout funds remains ?500bn ? ?500bn eurozone lending capacity of EFSF/ESM is a minimum ? ESM board of governors may decide to raise EFSF/ESM lending limit ? ESM treaty will enter into force when countries representing 90pc of subscribed capital ratify it ? Collective action clauses will be introduced in all new eurozone bonds one month after ESM treaty enters into force ? ESM's ?80bn paid-in capital is still to be paid over five years, but any eurozone country may pay it quicker.
18.37 The latest draft of the fiscal pact, Germany has triumphed with Article eight, which gives EU judges the power "to verify the transposition of the balanced budget rule at national level".
But Poland will not be happy. The current draft makes it clear that the Poles will not be invited to euro summits.
The President of the Euro Summit shall keep the Contracting Parties whose currency is not the euro and the other Member States of the European Union closely informed of the preparation and outcome of the Euro Summit meetings.
It may seem arcane but the new draft could create yet another well paid euro job. The "president of euro summits" is envisaged as being a separate person after Herman Van Rompuy's first term expires later this year (although he is expected to serve a second).
The President of the Euro Summit shall be appointed by the Heads of State or Government of the Contracting Parties whose currency is the euro by simple majority at the same time the European Council elects its President and for the same term of office.
The paper outlines some of the fiendishly complicated legal quibbles over how exisiting EU treaty rules on policing budget deficits can be beefed up.
In the language of everday life, the split is between a group led by France and another faction led by Germany over how "automatically" budget discipline is imposed. France is winning in terms of Article 7, which will still need the support of a majority of eurozone countries to put a country into "excessive deficit procedure".
18.15 Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann has said that unlimited ECB bond buying would violate EU treaty.
17.53 Bruno Waterfield, our man in Brussels, has revealed a secret plan for new EU taxes on Britain.
A confidential Franco-German paper, seen by the Daily Telegraph, reveals that the financial transaction tax is seen in Berlin and Paris as the first step to giving the EU a new power to "coordinate" taxation.
17.36 An EU fiscal treaty draft states that bailout aid is only for countries that ratify the new budget treaty. It also lets the EC set deficit reduction time-frames. Draft makes some concessions to ECB requests. The treaty will require a centralized ?correction mechanism? to be triggered ?automatically? in cases of ?significant? deviations from a target structural deficit of 0.5pc of gross domestic product.
The clause directly affects Ireland, which along with Greece and Portugal, who are all under EU-IMF programmes.
The news comes 10 days before an EU summit due to approve the document.
17.11 Ukraine is to hold talks with the IMF next week.
16.59 In just over 30 minutes, President Barack Obama is to announce a plan to help boost the US economy.
Where is this press conference being held? Disney World...
Another Mickey Mouse plan?
16.49 Moody's has said that global bank ratings are likely to decline in 2012.
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Spanish and French markets boosted by successful bond auctions earlier today.
16.35 Over in Greece, which has failed to reach an agreement with its creditors, the central bank governor Georgios Provopoulos has said that the country risks isolation with reform.
He adds that Greece must implement structural reforms to secure its membership in the eurozone or risk dire consequences.
16.31 Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls has said that Gordon Brown's repeated claims to have ended boom and bust "perhaps was a rhetorical error".
16.16 World football's governing body FIFA is hoping to achieve a profit of $200m during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke has said.
He said:
The 2014 World Cup should bring in $3.5bn, while expenditure should reach $3.3bn in the same period. FIFA will thus achieve a positive result of $200m.
The $3.5bn figure is below the estimated $4.1bn generated during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
But over on this side of the pond, Euro 2012 could leave hosts Poland and Ukraine nursing a loss of $8bn, Da Vinci AG has claimed.
16.11 Italy?s banks, led by UniCredit, were the biggest users of the special three-year funding mechanism launched by the European Central Bank in December, according to a report by analysts at Morgan Stanley.
UniCredit ? Italy?s biggest bank by assets ? took ?12.5bn of three-year money under the facility, closely followed by Intesa Sanpaolo, with ?12bn, and Monte dei Paschi di Siena, which took ?10bn, the report from analysts at Morgan Stanley says.
Royal Bank of Scotland tapped the facility for ?5bn, via its Dutch subsidiary ? equivalent to a quarter of its 2012 funding need.
15.57 Just to recap the earlier Ireland story.
Paul O'Hanlon writes a sign on the side of the #Occupydamestreet Camp, which has been outside Ireland's Central Bank in Dublin for three months.
The country has met the harsh austerity target demanded under an EU-IMF bail-out plan, inspectors have said. Budget cuts of ?6bn helped reduce the deficit to about 10pc, well within the target of 10.6pc. Troika officials added that major progress had been made in strengthening and shrinking the banking system, which was at the heart of the country's financial crisis.
Michael Noonan, Ireland's finance minister, is hoping to cut the country's debt burden by winning further concessions from Europe on the cost of bailing out its banks but a deal is months away.
15.48 Klaus Regling, who runs the European Financial Stability Facility, says it will be leveraged three or four times and will be in place soon.
15.45 More from the caption competition (see 15.06). jtm161 has posted:
Jay Z:"Dude ya all got your dinner down ya tie"
Buffett: "NURSE..NURSE"
15.42 Harry Wilson, the Telegraph's Banking Correspondent, says US investment bank Jefferies has emerged as the most likely buyer of corporate broker Hoare Govett from Royal Bank of Scotland.
Harry adds that Wells Fargo has dropped out of the bidding process for RBS's cash equities business.
15.39 Staying with the US, Morgan Stanley believes the European crisis will straighten out over the next few year. Earlier today, the bank revealed it lost $275m in the fourth quarter of 2011 compared with earnings of $600m a year earlier. The bank will reportedly cut senior banker/trader pay by up to 30pc.
15.37 Good news for the car industry! General Motors has reported global vehicle sales of more than 9m last year, a tally that could return the US automaker to the top rank in the automotive industry.
Japanese rival Toyota, which took the number-one global title from GM several years ago, has not yet reported its annual sales figures, but it has estimated a decline of 6pc to 7.9m units.
We have a great slideshow of Britain's top car makers on our website.
15.25 Good caption (see 15.06) from Wilky1, made us laugh in the office:
Jay-Z: So Warren, just who is this "Florence & Fred" who made your tie?
15.22 Here's gojam's suggestion for our caption competition (see 15.06):
Jay- Z thinking - "I'll just take Warren's gold tie clip, he won't notice."
Warren Buffett thinking - "I'll just take Jay-Z's gold cufflinks, he won't notice."
15.20 Jan Kees de Jager, the Dutch finance minister, has said it is important for the ECB board that there is a balance in representtaion between northern and southern EU countries.
15.17 ECB is reportedly buying Portuguese bonds... again.
15.06 Ok, it's caption competition time. Here is rap megastar and Beyonce's husband Jay-Z celebrating the re-opening of his 40/40 Club in New York with billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
No prizes, but we'll put the best suggestions in the blog.
15.00 Meanwhile, in the UK, 60 members of staff have been made redundant and five of Pumpkin Patch's 36 UK stores have been closed after the children's clothes retailer fell into administration. A further 340 jobs are at risk.
Elsewhere, joint administrators of Peacocks have announced 249 redundancies at the head office.
14.55 Moody's has said it may review Brazil's crdit rating in the second half of 2012.
Remember when the BRICs were going to pull us out of this mess?
14.36 However:
Ireland continues to face considerable challenges. Domestic demand remains subdued, unemployment high, and trading partner growth is slowing. As a result, projected GDP growth for 2012 has been revised down to � percent, from an estimated 1 percent in 2011.
In this more challenging environment, maintaining Ireland?s track record of strong program implementation remains key to sustaining recovery and achieving Ireland?s return to capital markets.
14.33 An official troika statement has also been released:
Program implementation remains strong. The front-loaded fiscal consolidation is on track, with the 2011 deficit significantly below the program targets. The Irish authorities have continued to advance wide-ranging reforms to restore the health of the financial system so it can support Ireland?s recovery. Reforms to enhance competitiveness and support growth and job creation are moving forward.
14.23 A journalist asks what the reaction of ordinary Irish people has been to the austerity measures.
The EC's Istv�n Sz�kely jokes that people have been very skilled in finding his email address, and that he has recently received several encouraging emails from people who "realise that the reforms are there to improve their lives". He adds that the comment have provided "solid evidence to base policies on".
IMF assistant director Craig Beaumont says that "Most people accepted the need for the bail out but it was clearly very difficult for some." He adds that he has worked with a number of authorities but has been impressed with the way that Irish authorities have worked together.
14.20 Ireland is on track to meet its fiscal targets, despite lower growth projections for 2012, they say.
14.07 The "troika" of the EU/ECB and IMF are holding a press conference on Ireland.
13.54 Also in America, US housing starts fell 4.1pc in December to 657,000, highlighting the property market's continued drag on the US economic recovery.
For example, take a look at this chart (scroll along the pictures above to see a larger version):
The chart (courtesy of Societe Generale), shows that nearly 30pc of mortgaged homes in America are either in or close to negative equity. In Nevada, the figure is more than 60pc.
Four years after housing helped spark the last recession, this doesn't look like much of a recovery to me.
13.45 Liam Dalton, at Axiom Capital Management, said:
I don't think these are market moving numbers. They're pretty much going in the same direction we've seen over the past six weeks, showing gradual improvement in the employment picture. Nothing spectacular, but the trend is improving.
13.38 After last week's blip, new applications for jobless benefits in America have fallen close to a four-year low, the Labor department said.
Initial claims fell to 352,000, the lowest level since April 2008 and the biggest drop since September 2005.
The four-week moving average of claims, considered to be a better measure of the labour market, dropped 3,500 to 379,000 last week.
13.20 Ireland is trying to position itself as the eurozone's poster child for success after its bail-out in 2010.
However, weak economic growth looks set to scupper the country's plan to exit its bail-out next year.
Finance minister Michael Noonan added that talks with European officials on reducing the costs of the country's bank bailout were still at a technical level. Ireland's government wants Europe to help refinance the burden of debt used to finance Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society, which includes interest costs of around ?17bn.
13.08 Mr Noonan said he expected Ireland's 2011 deficit to fall below the bailout agreement's target of 10.6pc, to 10pc.
Ireland is also tasked with reducing its deficit to below 3pc by 2015.
12.59 Right, back to all-things eurozone.
While Greece continues to struggle, Ireland has passed its latest bail-out test, paving the way for its next EU-IMF aid payment.
12.24 Reaction from the BBC's chief political correspondent, Norman Smith, who says that Mr Cameron's use of the phrase "crisis of capitalism" was surprising. "I thought it was copyright: one Karl Marx," he adds.
12.19 Last question comes from Newsnight's Paul Mason, who asks if the PM would ever use the state to limit capitalism.
Of course the government wants to "exercise responsibility," Mr Cameron says, but via a rule of "maximum responsibility and minimal law," not vice-versa.
David Cameron pictured at New Zealand House on Thursday (Photo: Getty)
12.05 We're on to questions. Will the government act to stop state-owned banks from dishing out big bonuses?
In a word: "Yes," Mr Cameron says. Cash bonuses at RBS are limited to �2,000, he reiterates, and if bonuses are paid, they will be "a lot smaller than last year".
12.02 "Popular capitalism" involves supporting the "insurgent economy," the PM says, and those "new, innovative and bold" ideas that could see the "new Google" emerge. This is why the Government is abolishing capital gains tax for anyone who invests in a start-up this year, he adds.
11.58 The Telegraph's Daniel Knowles is following the speech:
11.53 "Lethal imbalances" have caused several divides, Mr Cameron adds. Between the North and South, financial services and manufacturing, and the top and bottom of the pay scale which have all led to a "debt crazed" economy.
11.51 There has been a "crisis of capitalism," Mr Cameron says, with the previous government's "turbo capitalism" leading them to turn a blind eye to excess.
11.47 David Cameron is speaking on the economy.
He says the continued economic turmoil has led people to question not just when economies will recover, but the fundamentals of how they work.
The UK must:
...aim to build a better economy. One that is truly fair and worthwhile. We won't do that by turning our back on the free market, but by making sure that it is fair.
11.39 Mr Sarkozy is due to announce economic reforms at the end of the month, including one dubbed "social VAT" that will see France ease the burden of welfare contributions on businesses by raising VAT.
He also wants to introduce agreements at company-level that could see workers accept pay cuts in return for more job security.
Analysts at Societe Generale say a social VAT would be unfavourable in the short term.
Over 12 months it would have a negligible negative impact on growth and would raise the inflation rate by 0.9%.
Though in the long term:
it would enhance France competitiveness, increase potential GDP by 0.4 percentage points, create 100,000 jobs and improve the current-account balance by 0.2 percentage points of GDP.
11.17 French President Nicolas Sarkozy is speaking in Lyon on the government's priorities for the economy. He says (BBC translation):
The world has changed profoundly. For us to conserve and protect the France that we all love and for us to guard the social model we all like, we must change.
He describes Europe as a "treasure" which stands stronger together.
11.04 Last week, Mr Venizelos called on the Arab world to help the country escape the "acute phase of fiscal and financial crisis that keeps recycling itself".
Greek finance minister Evangelos Venizelos
10.55 Back to Greece, where finance minister Evangelos Venizelos has been addressing parliament.
He has reiterated that he wants any debt swap with private sector bondholders to be voluntary, and will meet the Institute of International Finance (IIF) today to continue talks.
Mr Venizelos will also meet the "troika" of the EU, ECB and IMF on Friday. AFP are reporting that the IMF has given the green light for talks on new rescue loans for the country.
After a waiting period of several weeks, the green light has been given for the country to submit to the IMF a request to begin procedures for the new programme [...] At an unofficial meeting of the IMF governing board yesterday in Washington, IMF members were given approval to begin talks with the Greek government on the new programme.
10.40 Make that now. The UK has got its own auction away, with demand outstripping supply by a ratio of 2.02 to one. The average yield was 0.893pc (compared with 1.102pc at the last comparable auction on January 4).
This is the lowest rate ever achieved.
10.37 The result of a �4bn UK gilt auction is due shortly.
10.29 More analyst comment on France's bond sale. Peter Chatwell at Credit Agricole, said:
The French auctions were solid, issuing near the maximum amount. Post-auction trading appears solid and the way this paper has been taken down, with minimal concession at the front end, is evidence of very strong structural demand for front-end paper at the moment.
10.25 This could be payback:
S&P downgraded Italy to the same level as Kazakhstan, South Africa and Thailand last week.
Italian prosecutors seized documents at both S&P and Moody's last August in a probe over suspected "anomalous" fluctuations in share prices.
10.10 Next up, France.
Three auctions saw the country sell almost ?3bn of 2014 notes at average rates of 1.05pc (vs 1.58pc in November), ?1.6bn of 2015 notes at an average yield of 1.51pc (vs 2.44pc), and ?3.4bn of 2016 notes at average rates of 1.89pc (vs 2.82pc).
In a sentence, French borrowing costs have come down.
Downgrades? What downgrades?
10.06 Here's what Padhraic Garvey, strategist at ING, thought of the auction:
They've allocated more than the ceiling again which is good. It means that they get ahead of target in terms of auctions getting done. Spain has had good auction experience the past couple of times it's come to the market -- so far, so good.
09.58 In total, Spain sold ?6.6bn of bonds across three auctions. The country paid significantly lower rates in a 10-year bond sale (5.403pc vs 6.975pc), and 4.541pc (vs 5.110pc) in an auction of 2019 bonds.
09.55 Spain has got the first bond auction of the day away.
Demand was particularly strong at its auction of medium-term debt, where it sold bonds at an average yield of 4.029pc, slightly higher than the 3.912pc average at the last auction.
Demand outstripped supply by a ratio of 3.2 to one, nearly double that of the last auction.
09.34 Italian daily La Repubblica reports new figures today estimating that Italians evaded an estimated ?119.6bn in taxes in 2009, nearly four times the value of prime minister Mario Monti's new austerity budget, and up to 28pc of Italy's total tax revenue, according to the paper.
Speaking yesterday in London, Mr Monti said that new measures to tackle tax evasion were "quite bold" and that he was "very confident that a remarkable revenue will be generated" from them.
Mr Monti at the London School of Economics on Wednesday (Photo: AP)
09.24 Ratings agency Fitch has said it expects its ratings review of six eurozone countries to result in downgrades of one to two notches in most of those countries.
Fitch put Belgium, Spain, Slovenia, Italy, Ireland and Cyprus on negative watch last year. It is expected to complete its review by the end of the month.
Last week, the French rating agency said it had no plans to cut France's AAA credit rating before the end of 2013 unless there were major economic shocks.
09.10 More from Capital Economics:
The Pension Protection Fund (PPF) estimates that the 6,650 schemes eligible for entry to the PPF had a combined deficit at the end of last year of �255bn. This was up from �222bn in November and is a huge turn-around from the surplus seen as recently as the start of 2011.
This has been driven almost entirely by falling bond yields. While a rise in bond prices boosts firms? pension fund assets, the bigger effect is to increase the present value of their future liabilities, which are discounted by gilt yields. The chart shows that pension funds? liabilities have soared ? rising by about a third over 2011 as a whole.
09.00 Britain has been a big beneficiary of recent safe haven flows. Yesterday, yields on 10 year-gilts fell to a record low of 1.917pc at one point, and are currently trading up 3 basis points on the day at 1.979pc (according to Reuters data). Britain also goes to the markets this morning, selling �4bn of gilts due in 2016.
Chancellor George Osborne has been basking in the UK's low borrowing costs recently. But one negative aspect is its effect on UK pension funds. Capital Economics explains:
While the drop in bond yields in recent months has been a generally welcome development, it does have its disadvantages, as highlighted by last week?s figures on company pension schemes. Given that gilt yields are used to calculate the current value of future liabilities, pension fund deficits have risen sharply, adding to the factors weighing on business confidence.
08.47 Borrowing costs have ticked up across Europe ahead of the sale (although costs have fallen significantly in the past week, despite Standard and Poor's mass downgrades last Friday).
Yields on Spanish ten year bonds ticked up 3 basis points to 5.105pc in early morning trade, while Italian bonds moved up one basis point to 6.392pc and French bonds traded flat at 3.121pc.
08.28 The ECB halved its minimum reserve requirements to 1pc from 2pc starting yesterday, releasing a lot of liquid into the markets, and partly explaining yesterday's massive jump in deposits.
08.26 Meanwhile, the hoarding of cash at the ECB has eased - for now at least. Overnight bank deposits fell to ?395.3bn, compared with an all-time high of ?528.2bn the previous evening.
Perhaps banks will use some of the cash in this morning's auction of French and Spanish debt.
France sells two, three and four-year notes this morning, as well as longer dated inflation-linked bonds, while Spain will offer a range of long-term bonds, ranging from five to 10 years.
The FTSE 100 in London opened up 0.12pc at 5,709.07, while the CAC 40 in Paris opened up 0.65pc at 3,286.14 and Frankfurt's DAX 30 index ticked up 0.3pc to 6,373.92.
08.00 Meanwhile, the head of the European Commission's task force to help rebuild Greece's economy has warned that Europe must be patient with the highly indebted country. Horst Reichenbach told German TV:
Things are moving ahead slowly - we should not expect any miracles [...] We must be more generous as far as time-frames go when it comes to Greece's reforms.
07.49 UK prime minister David Cameron is set to call for a new "popular capitalism" to improve the bonus culture of banking in a speech later today.
The Government is expected to promise to end ?rewards for failure?, as well as the ?old boys? network? of remuneration committees (Photo: PA)
07.47 Labour leader Ed Miliband has written a column for the Financial Times on the UK's toxic blend of capitalism and short-termism:
The world economy is struggling to recover from a crisis caused by inadequately regulated financial activity. Governments are struggling to deal with deficits that are too high and growth that is too low. And, long before the credit crunch, people in the middle were struggling with squeezed living standards.
These are not isolated phenomena but caused by rules that encourage wealth creation focused on short-term returns, fail to reward productive behaviour and skew distribution towards the top [...]
Short-termism seems hard wired in to our economy, with small companies unable to access the capital they need. We are looking at significant reform of our pension industry and proposals for a National Investment Bank for small business.
07.42 As for Britain, any extra contributions are likely to be a hard-sell, as Rowena Mason and Christopher Hope highlight:
07.40 Here's a quick reminder of some of the bigger countries' commitments to the IMF funding pot. View the full list here.
Some of the BRICs, notably China and Brazil, have already said they are willing to stump up more cash, but only in return for more clout at the IMF negotiating table.
China was one of the IMF's 35 founding members when it was set up in 1945.
07.25 The reception to any increase has been mixed. America has already said it will not be responding to the IMF's latest cash call, while according to Dow Jones, Japan said last night:
Japan is prepared to support European efforts to stabilise the market, including through lending to the IMF, based on strong efforts by European countries.
...and a Brazilian official said:
Brazil continues with a positive focus, in the sense of assuring that the IMF has the necessary resources," the official said. "We understand that the format discussed at Cannes should remain in place.
07.08 While Angela Monaghan writes of Germany slashing its 2012 growth outlook as the slowdown catches up with Europe's powerhouse:
Philipp Roesler, Germany's economy minister, insisted: "There can be no talk of recession."
He said the German economy probably shrank by 0.3pc in the fourth quarter of 2011, but he expected growth of 0.1pc in the first three months of 2012, thereby escaping a technical recession of two successive quarters of negative growth.
"Germany is, and remains, an anchor for stability and growth in Europe. After two extraordinarily strong growth years, the German economy is still on robust form. However, due to a difficult external environment, we are expecting a temporary dip in growth in the first half of the year," he said.
07.05 Louise Armitstead reports on the doubts cast over the IMF's planned $500bn boost:
Ms Lagarde said its members recognised the "importance of ensuring adequate fund firepower to help defuse current global economic weaknesses and regional challenges."
But neither traders nor economists - nor some key politicians - were prepared to bet on the delivery of the IMF's plan and worried instead about the advancing debt crisis.
07.03 This morning's business front pages are looking at troubled RBS as well as the eurozone crisis:
Telegraph: Doubt over IMF's eurozone lifeline
Financial Times (�): RBS tests Cameron's top pay crackdown
The Times (�): RBS fined �2m over staff who tampered with complaint files
The Guardian: We won't ask Britain for bailout money, Italian PM promises
07.00 Good morning and welcome back to our live coverage of the debt crisis.
Debt crisis live: archive
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