China's economic growth slowest in almost 30 years - as it happened

Rolling coverage of the latest business and economic news, as fresh data shows Chinese GDP grew at its weakest rate since the early 1990s

• EU goods start facing new US tariffs
• SFO draws a line under Libor manipulation probe

2.56pm BST

Chinese GDP figures set a negative tone for markets today, sparking fresh worries about how the slowdown might reverberate across the global economy.

2.37pm BST

It's a subdued open for US stocks, with all three major indexes starting the American trading session nearly flat:

2.15pm BST

Little can be done about China's slowing growth - it's natural.

That's the view of Stefan Legge, lecturer, economist and trade expert from Switzerland's University of St. Gallen.

No country in history has achieved the track record of GDP growth that China has shown. According to data from the World Bank, China's GDP has grown by more than 3.9% in every single year since 1977. Even the Southeast-Asian tiger countries did not achieve this.

Long run growth in GDP is driven by resource accumulation and mobilisation as well as by innovation.

In China, due to population ageing the labor force is already on a shrinking trajectory and there is little that can be done about it. Capital accumulation (that is infrastructure or machinery) faces decreasing marginal returns: the first highways and railways generated more economic growth than current projects.

Finally, improvements in productivity through innovation is much harder and slower than through imitation. China has reached a middle-income status and most countries face slowing GDP growth at this point.

1.45pm BST

Once it's on Twitter, it's official.

Christine Lagarde has been formally appointed as the incoming head of the European Central Bank.

My sincere thanks to European leaders for appointing me as President of the @ecb from 1 November 2019. It is an honour to succeed Mario Draghi. I am looking forward to working with the ECB's talented staff to keep euro area prices stable and banks safe. pic.twitter.com/IkkKrKBBHn

1.31pm BST

The Serious Fraud Office has announced that its investigation into Libor manipulation has come to a close.

It means there will be no further charges in the case.

1.10pm BST

More from my colleague Phillip Inman on the UK construction data covering 2018 out today.

Worth noting the "astonishingly high" average weekly pay for workers recorded last year:

Construction-related employment in Great Britain increased by 2.8% in 2018 to reach its highest level on record, with the South East, London and the East of England contributing 41.1% of total employment.

And average weekly earnings increased to 635.66 per week in December 2018, well above the 496 weekly pay of the average worker and second only to the finance and business services sector.

This astonishingly high pay is stunning when the Labour productivity figures show that productivity, as measured by output per hour, fell by 4.8% in 2018 compared with the previous year.

The industry also contributes to the UK's huge trade deficit, importing more construction materials and components than it exports to the extent that it reached 10.6bn in 2018, with imports being more than double the value of exports.

12.51pm BST

Guardian economics writer Phillip Inman has been looking at construction figures for 2018 released today from the Office for National Statistics.

The ONS has opened a window on the construction industry that goes to show how it works to its own rules. And how dependent it is on the public sector.

The figures for 2018 reveal that the value of new work across the industry reached its highest level on record at 113.1bn. This was driven by growth in public sector work of 2.7bn. The private sector only accounted for 750m of the increase.

The suspicion must be that many of the "firms" were phoenix-like operations that had risen from the ashes of "bust" firms, or more likely firms that exploited lax procedures at Companies House to disappear and rise again.

The construction sector suffered 3,202 insolvencies, which is the highest of any sector in 2018 and a 14.7% increase on the 2,792 insolvencies seen in 2017.

12.39pm BST

The US dollar is set for its worst week in almost 4 months against a basket of global currencies, after being hit by Brexit-related rallies of both the pound and euro.

Depending on the outcome of Saturday's vote in Parliament, that steady decline could continue into next week.

12.03pm BST

Boris Johnson has penned an open letter to British business, praising not only his own deal but also the "inspiring" and "hard working" business community.

The Sun's deputy political editor quips it's a shift in tone from the PM:

It's no longer 'F*** Business' but 'Dear Business': pic.twitter.com/Gk8DN58pOl

11.45am BST

The PPI story keeps rolling on and on and on...

This time the Competition and Markets Authority has ordered Nationwide to refund more than 7,000 customers who either did not receive or were sent inaccurate information reminders about payment protection insurance.

Nationwide has broken the rules by not sending essential PPI reminders to their customers. 8 years on from our legally-binding order, it is simply unacceptable that the CMA is having to remind Britain's biggest banks of their legal obligations.

Nationwide has failed its customers by denying them important information, and the directions we've issued today will lead to affected customers receiving the refunds they deserve.

11.18am BST

Intercontinental Hotels Group is one of the worst performers on the FTSE 100 (down 2.8%) after the Holiday Inn-owner reported a 0.8% drop in Q3 revenue per room.

It blamed lower business bookings in China and the ongoing protests in Hong Kong for the drop.

Today we published our Third Quarter Trading Update. You can read the full announcement here: https://t.co/IqxW8vanUC

10.40am BST

An interesting tweet from Capital Economics, highlighting the increased importance of China in global trade today, compared to the early 1990s:

A map of global trade, 1990 vs now pic.twitter.com/UIhSwnUiQR

10.29am BST

The pound is now flat against the US dollar at $1.288 but its temporary lift this morning was chalked up to comments from Bank of England deputy governor Dave Ramsden.

The kind of guidance we've been giving - in the world of a deal it still applies.

We're not saying over what timeframe, but limited and gradual (rate increases) is a reasonable qualitative framing.

10.04am BST

While some analysts are betting that China's central bank, the PBOC, will be more willing to ease monetary policy on the back of weaker GDP, we've got some contrarians in the mix.

Case in point: Stephen Innes, AxiTrader's Asia-Pacific market strategist. He says:

While the weaker China GDP suggests an economic pull to ease monetary policy to support the real economy... a 6 % GDP won't necessarily add to the case for urgent stimulus, as the 6.0-6.5% range is with the government's annual target, and so far China is facing limited risk in breaching this for the year.

If there's one thing China's massive army of retail equity investor like it's the thought of easy money from the PBOC. Unfortunately for China stock market investors, the PBOC are not so willing at this stage.

Currency and rates traders aren't getting bent out of shape by backwards-looking data. Instead, they remain focused on what lies ahead, which is hopefully the US administration scrapping some of those tariffs which would be an unmitigated positive for global growth.

9.42am BST

After hitting a five-month high against the US dollar on Thursday amid Brexit deal hopes, the pound is continuing to hover at $1.29.

Sadly, traders aren't going to get much pleasure to enjoy the Friday feeling or get any sleep over this weekend because of the chaotic Brexit situation.

We think this could be a chance to go short on Sterling. If the deal is rejected in Parliament, sterling is likely to fall off the cliff due to a no-deal Brexit threat.

9.12am BST

While China's economic growth is suffering the effects of a trade war with the US, the EU is from today facing a new set of tariffs on American-bound exports.

As my colleague Jasper Jolly writes:

Related: UK manufacturers braced for financial hit as US tariffs bite

8.53am BST

It's been a pretty lacklustre start to the Friday session across European markets:

As the pound holds its breath ahead of 'super Saturday', the markets dealt with another disastrous - well, relative to the country's usual performance - figure out of China.

Coming in at a worse than forecast 6.0%, China's third quarter GDP reading saw growth at its lowest for nearly 3 decades... The country is clearly continuing to feel the trade war squeeze, putting all the more pressure on the so-far insubstantial - and uncertain, given the dispute over Hong Kong - 'partial trade deal' announced last weekend.

8.42am BST

Over in Europe, carmakers are taking a hit after Renault cut its sales guidance and profitability forecasts.

8.13am BST

Chinese stocks haven't fared well in the wake of the GDP data, with the Shanghai Composite Index dropping by -1.2%

7.52am BST

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy, the financial markets, the eurozone and business.

While uncertainty over Boris Johnson's Brexit deal hits front pages in Europe, China's slowing growth is dominating news out of Asia.

Related: China's quarterly economic growth sinks to 26-year low amid US trade war