Business news and markets: as it happened - Friday, April 11 2014

This has put annual like-for-likes up 13.1pc, a performance chief executive Beth Butterwick says she is "delighted" with. Vodafone, meanwhile, has just announced that it has taken full control of its Indian subsidiary, paying £1bn to up its stake to from 89pc to 100pc.

• Willie Walsh, the chief executive of British Airways owner International Airlines Group, has launched a stinging attack on the government's airport policy.

He has told a summit in Abu Dhabi that Dubai will soon overtake Heathrow as the world's busiest international airport and that the UK "doesn't have politicians who are brave enough to grasp this".

Co-operative Bank reports £1.3bn loss

08.35 The crisis at the Co-op continues as its bank finally releases its results today and they do not make for pleasant reading.

The mutual's banking arm has announced a £1.3bn loss for 2013, has said that it will not pay £5m in deferred bonuses and says it does not expect to make a profit in 2014 or 2015.

Its chief executive Niall Booker, who will receive a £2.9m pay package with a bonus of up to £1.2m, says the losses "reflect the magnitude of the issues that have come to light since I joined".

He has also apologised to the bank's customers, saying:

We appreciate that customers and other stakeholders continue to feel angry about how past failings placed the future of the business so seriously at risk.

The Co-operative Group lost control of the bank last year, with bondholders taking over as the bank struggled to fill a £1.5bn capital hole.

Barroso to meet Portuguese prime minister

08.27 The timining of the upgrade is great for Portugal as it's Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho meets with the European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

They will no doubt be talking about the €78bn bailout Portugal received on condition that the country enact deep structural reforms to correct public finances and raise efficiency in the economy.

They do seem to be getting the job done.

Fitch upgrades Portugal's outlook to 'positive'

08.06 Some good news for Portugal this morning as ratings agency Fitch upgraded its outlook for the country to "positive" and maintained the country's credit rating at BB+.

Fitch noted budgetary efforts agreed by Lisbon as well as the overall recovering economy of the country three years after its bailout, in its decision to upgrade.

Portugal is making good progress in reducing its budget deficit.

Fitch forecast the Portuguese economy to grow by 1.3pc this year and 1.5pc in 2015.

China inflation jumps to 2.4pc year-on-year in March

07.53 Over to China where inflation accelerated to 2.4pc year-on-year in March driven by higher food prices.

The rise in the consumer price index (CPI) was up from the 2pc seen in February but well below the 3.5pc annual target set by Beijing.

It was also marginally below the median forecast of 2.5pc.

The increase was chiefly driven by a 4.1pc year on year increase in food prices, according to the figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

What to watch

07.42 Not a great deal of economic news out today.

In the UK we will get the latest construction output for February at 09.30.

We will have final German inflation numbers for March, which are expected to show a fall in prices from 1pc to 0.9pc, which will do little to halt the rising concerns of deflation.

It's the opening of the International Monetary Fund's Spring Meeting in Washington DC today, and many of the finance world's bigwigs are in tow. The IMF's managing director Christine Lagarde is speaking at 14.00 UK time on the fund's "global policy agenda".

Expect international aid for Ukraine to be high up the agenda. George Osborne is also stateside, and will be giving a speech entitled "The British Recovery" at the American Enterprise think tank at 18.00.

Back in Europe, Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, is due to meet Greece's Prime Minister Antonis Samaras in Athens. Mr Samaras was handed a boost yesterday by Greece's first bond issuance in four years.

And the European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will be meeting the Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho.

Today's business stories

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

• Szu Ping Chan writes Britain is still too reliant on consumer spending to drive growth and further action is needed to foster stronger exports and investment to ensure the economy is "three engines powered", according to the head of the International Monetary Fund.

• Graham Ruddick writes Marc Bolland, the chief executive of Marks & Spencer, has insisted his strategy for the retailer is “bang on” after clothing delivered its best sales performance for three years but at the cost of margins falling.

• Emily Gosden reports that Russia cutting off European gas supplies would be so disastrous for both sides that it is unlikely to happen, BP said on Thursday, as the oil giant faced a major revolt from shareholders over chief executive Bob Dudley’s £6.5m pay package. a story with a link

Here's the front page of today's Business section:

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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