FTSE 100 posts third best day of 2023 as bond selloff eases; gas prices jump after Balticconnector pipe leak – as it happened

Markets surge on relief that bond yields are falling, while gas prices jump following reports that damage to Finland-Estonia pipeline could be deliberate

• Full story: Undersea pipeline damage appears to be deliberate, says Finland
• UK interest rates will need to stay high into 2024, warns IMF

The IMF says its economic projections are increasingly consistent with a soft landing" scenario, in which inflation falls without a major downturn in activity.

This is especially true in the United States, the Fund's Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas says, where unemployment is forecast to only rise to 3.9% by 2025, from 3.6%.

The global economy continues to recover slowly from the blows of the pandemic, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the cost-of-living crisis. In retrospect, the resilience has been remarkable.

Despite the disruption in energy and food markets caused by the war, and the unprecedented tightening of global monetary conditions to combat decades-high inflation, the global economy has slowed, but not stalled. Yet growth remains slow and uneven, with growing global divergences. The global economy is limping along, not sprinting.