Business news and markets: live

China's premier seeks to reassure markets with pledge of support for economy

08.42 Over in China, the Premier Li Keqiang has sought to reassure jittery global investors that Beijing is ready to support the cooling economy, saying the government had the necessary policies in place and would push ahead with infrastructure investment.

In a speech to a meeting in China's northeast made on Wednesday and reported by the Xinhua news agency early on Friday, Li said government has policies well prepared and would roll out targeted measures step by step to aid the economy.

We have gathered experience from successfully battling the economic downturn last year and we have policies in store to counter economic volatility for this year

Recent weak economic data and mounting signs of financial risks have dimmed outlook for the world's second-largest economy, sparking talk of imminent government action or even a mini-stimulus plan to shore up growth.

Julian Evans-Pritchard, China economist at Capital Economics in Singapore, said:

They don't want investors and businesses to lose confidence. So obviously they want to make it clear they have the ability to step in if necessary. So I think that's probably the main point behind it.

British consumer confidence highest since 2007

08.20 British consumer confidence this month is at its highest level since around the start of the financial crisis in 2007, according to GfK research published today.

GfK's headline consumer confidence index rose to -5 this month, its highest reading since August 2007, from -7 in February. Economists polled by Reuters expected a rise to -6.

The index has risen over the last year by 22 points - the largest increase since November 2008 to October 2009.

Growth in the economy is partly behind this, it says.

Nick Moon, managing director of social research at GfK, said:

The current long-term trend is very strongly positive.

People are now on balance more positive than negative about their own financial prospects over the next year, and it is unlikely that anything announced in the recent (government) budget will reverse this.

What to watch

07.50 At 9.30am we will have the latest UK GDP figure for the fourth quarter of last year. Quarterly growth is expected to remain unchanged at 0.7pc with 2.7pc annually.

Jasper Lawler, market analyst at CMC Markets, notes:

The growth rate is encouraging and retail sales and confidence are high in the UK, markets will be looking for the needed uptick in investment spending to give the economic recovery more balance.

There is also German CPI which is expected to show a slight slowdown to 0.4pc in February from 0.5pc previously.

Today's business stories

07.30 Here's what's leading our business pages this morning

• Emily Gosden writes that the Centrica chief executive says energy giant is unlikely to invest in power plants needed to keep the lights on while under investigation by the top competition watchdog.

• Ambrose Evans-Pritchard writes Ukraine has secured an emergency bail-out of up to $18bn (£10.9bn) from the International Monetary Fund to stave off imminent default but will see no debt relief and will be forced to slash spending amid dangerous civil conflict.

Good morning

07.00 Good morning and welcome to our daily business and markets live blog, your one stop shop for all the breaking business stories of the day.

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