Greece repays IMF loan

• Greece has repaid a a450m IMF loan due today
• Varoufakis: reform is a dirty word in Greece
• Bank of England holds rates at 0.5%
• UK trade deficit widens unexpectedly
• Greek deflation eases; unemployment falls
• European markets rise

4.08pm BST

Time for a quick afternoon summary:

3.55pm BST

Hot off the press:

The boss of the International Monetary Fund has made an impassioned plea for governments to make the next decade one of sustainable and inclusive growth that cuts national debt burdens and tackles high unemployment, writes the Guardian's economics correspondent Philip Inman.

With overall growth moderate, the global economy continues to face a number of significant challenges. For example, what I have called the 'low-low, high-high' scenario: the risk of low growth-low inflation and high debt-high unemployment persists for a number of advanced economies.

3.45pm BST

In Paris a large rally has taken place today against public spending cuts. Tens of thousands of people have been marching in towns and cities across France, with the largest demonstration in the capital.

3.10pm BST

Markets are undoubtedly cheered by the news that Greece has made a a450m debt repayment to the IMF.

In the US, the latest weekly jobless claim numbers came in lower than expected. The number of claimants increased by 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 281,000 for the week ended 4 April, the Labor Department said.

Last nights Fed minutes didn't tell us anything that we didn't already know, given the removal of "patience" from the guidance language, and the differences of opinion articulated by several members since that meeting.

The minutes did show us that members were split three ways between a potential lift off [in rates] in June, and a lift off in September with at least two favouring a delay until 2016, which suggests that the consensus needed for a change in policy still remains some way off.

2.59pm BST

US markets are relatively quiet:

2.06pm BST

It's official. Greece has successfully completed the repayment of a a450m IMF loan owed today according to a Greek government official.

The payment has been made.

2.02pm BST

The Greek finance minister said Greece is not entirely happy with the way the negotiations on reforms is being approached by its creditors.

The Greek government would like to press ahead with certain urgent reforms before agreeing on others, but the process dictates that the whole package must be agreed upon first.

We are keen to begin implementing this yesterday, but everything is on hold until the negotiations are finished.

We want to get on with the low hanging fruit and then move on to the high hanging fruit.

Few finance ministers are as ready and economics literate as @yanisvaroufakis says @josephstiglitz #NewThinkingParis

1.27pm BST

Varoufakis says that Greece needs to agree three key things with its eurozone partners:

#Varoufakis: "The crisis has taken such a turn where the line bw Left and Right has been blurred."

1.22pm BST

Varoufakis gives a sense of the pressure felt by the new Greek government immediately on being elected in January.

The day after we were elected we faced an asphyxiatingly tight timetable.

We went to our partners and said: can we find some common ground? Can we extend our deadline from the one month we have, so that we can sit around the table and think about what needs to be done?

1.13pm BST

Yanis Varoufakis:

Reform is a word that resonates in Greece like the word democracy does in Iraq. Reform is a dirty word in Greece.

If people hear the word reform in Greece they think their pensions will be cut. Small businesses think VAT will be increased.

12.59pm BST

Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek finance minister, is appearing on a panel at a conference hosted by The Institute for New Economic Thinking at the OECD in Paris.

The way we designed the eurozone was crying out for a crisis like this to happen.

12.24pm BST

As my colleague Katie Allen reported over the weekend:

The last time UK interest rates were on hold for a longer stretch was between 1940 and 1951 when the UK was ravaged first by war and then by reconstruction efforts, as it was led by a succession of governments (including Clement Attlee, who was prime minister between July 1945 and October 1951).

Bank rate was cut from 4% to 2% during 1939 and then stayed there until a hike to 2.5% in November 1951.

At present the outlook for UK interest rates is receiving relatively little attention, in part because the general election is stealing the limelight but also because the February record low zero inflation rate has left many thinking lift-off for rates is now a way off.

Our suspicion is that we could well see rate lift-off talk re-ignite before too long, particularly if UK recovery momentum builds through the spring against a background of an improving euro area economy, helping the UK's external position.

12.07pm BST

No pre-election shocks here.

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee has left interest rates on hold at 0.5% and quantitative easing unchanged at 375bn at its final meeting before the general election on 7 May.

11.54am BST

Over in Athens, senior government ministers are expressing confidence that Greece will successfully conclude negotiations over reforms with its creditors in the coming weeks.

The Guardian's Helena Smith reports:

Sounding more optimistic than perhaps any other leading Greek government official to date, the minister of state, Alekos Flambouraris, said he expected Athens to have sealed a deal with international creditors by the time euro area finance ministers hold their next scheduled meeting on 24 April.

"At the Euro Group on April 24there will 100 per cent be an agreement," he told Mega TV on Thursday morning.

11.39am BST

Some more reaction now to those poor UK trade figures earlier, which showed the trade in goods deficit hit a seven-month high of 10.3bn in January as exports fell but imports rose.

It is clear that the UK is not yet making adequate process to rebalance the economy towards net exports.

Unless we see firm action to improve our export performance, it is not clear how we will sustain strong growth in the long-term.

Despite recent positive signs from the UK's trade deficit, there has been little indication of sustained improvement in overall export performance. This is partly due to challenging conditions in key export markets such as Europe, but it underlines why supporting businesses to export, particularly in emerging markets, must remain at the forefront of policy thinkers' minds.

Whoever forms the next government must think about how they will help business to find new markets overseas. Support needs to be coherent and link with other advice and training, matching the ambition of our start-ups and small firms that want to grow and develop into the British success stories of the future.

Before today's trade data it was a coin toss between whether to believe the strong PMI data (which pointed to strong GDP) or the weak output data (pointing to weak GDP).

On the back of the trade data, my bias is on the output data. I think we are looking at a very good chance of GDP growth slowing to just 0.4% quarter-on-quarter in Q1.

11.00am BST

Annual consumer prices deflation slowed to 2.1% in Greece in March, from 2.2% in February.

Greece's EU-harmonised rate of deflation, which brings it into line with the rest of the eurozone, was 1.9% in March, unchanged from February.

10.39am BST

The Greek unemployment rate eased slightly to 25.7% in January from 25.9% in December according to the statistics agency Elstat.

The jobless rate has been falling after hitting a record high of 28% in September, but remains more than double the eurozone average of 11.3% in February.

10.14am BST

A nasty set of trade figures for the UK this morning.

The UK's trade in goods deficit widened unexpectedly in February to a seven-month high of 10.3bn from 9.2bn in January. It was driven by a fall in exports, while imports rose according to the Office for National Statistics.

February's trade deficit came in worse than expected and will have re-ignited fears that the strong pound and weakness in demand in the euro-zone is acting as a straightjacket on exporters.

9.26am BST

Before one Greek deadline has passed, we've got another one to contend with.

Eurozone deputy finance ministers have given Greece a deadline of six-working days to come up with revised reform proposals according to the Greek newspaper Kathimerini.

Yesterday's talks between Greece and the Eurogroup ended with the Eurogroup issuing the Greeks with an ultimatum to present acceptable proposals for fiscal, pension and labour market reform in the next six days, whatever that means.

Given that we've been here so many times before, ultimatums generally only work when there is a threat of a significant sanction at the end of the deadline, and short of throwing Greece out of the euro it would seem that any sanction is likely to be limited, particularly if Greece continues to muddle through.

9.10am BST

Greece has paid the IMF according to some on Twitter, but no official confirmation yet...

Greece repays a448m to IMF - BREAKING - http://t.co/RUywL6Ci0o

Confirmed: #Greece has forwarded a448ml repayment to #IMF.

9.05am BST

Greek shares are also up this morning, with the ATG index rising 0.7% to 773.09.

Top risers:

8.48am BST

European markets are up this morning.

A lack of nasty surprises in the Federal Reserve minutes last night (more on that soon), and expectations that Greece will honour its debt repayment today appear to have boosted investors.

8.40am BST

An unnamed Greek government official has told Reuters that Athens will repay the a450m instalment due today.

The payment has been scheduled and will go out later today.

8.34am BST

The average price of a UK house rose 0.4% last month, to 192,970 according to mortgage lender Halifax.

It followed a 0.4 fall in prices in February, and beat economists' expectations of a 0.2% increase.

The recent return to real earnings growth for the first time in several years, very low mortgage rates and last December's stamp duty changes are supporting housing demand.

The rising level of house prices in relation to earnings should, however, curb house price growth and activity. The annual rate of house price growth, which has continued to ease in the first quarter of 2015, is forecast to end the year at 3-5%.

8.23am BST

We will of course be keeping a very close eye on developments in Greece, as well as the other key events and data out today.

Please keep your comments coming.

7.55am BST

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