Economics / Markets

FSA chairman Lord Turner last night said the amount of high quality capital banks should hold as a risk buffer should be double the current requirement.

The UK's economic recovery slowed in the second half of last year and will remain 'subdued' throughout 2011, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) predicts.

The UK unemployment rate rose to 8% in the three months to the end of January, lead by the highest number of out of work young people since records began.

Moody's has downgraded Portugal's government debt two more notches because of "subdued" growth prospects.

UK blue chips made small gains in early trading after heavily sold-off Japanese shares ended a three-day rout to climb sharply overnight.

Updated: Global stock markets fell sharply on Tuesday as investor panic spreads following a third explosion at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Prudential chief executive Tidjane Thiam is likely to receive his full bonus this year in a move which could prove controversial with shareholders still upset over the cost of his failed bid for AIA.

Britain will keep its triple-A credit rating after one of the world's leading ratings agencies said the coalition's austerity measures had done enough to stabilise the public finances.

Fund managers warn Japan could take a short term hit to GDP following last week's earthquake and tsunami, but they are less concerned about the longer-term impact on the country's fragile economic recovery.

Japan's stock market lost almost 7% after its first full day of trading following the earthquake and tsunami that struck the country on Friday.