Markets hope for progress over EU recovery fund – business live

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

• Introduction: EU recovery fund in focus
• Investors doubtful of deal today
• EU summit opens with Covid-19 safeguards

11.59am BST

A diminutive spectre is stalking the UK's shops -- the spectre of shrinkflation.

Snack maker Mondelez is in the spotlight, after announcing that it is cutting the size of Cadbury chocolate bars sold in multipacks to lower their calorie count.

Cadbury has announced that it's shrinking the size of Wispa Gold, Double Decker and other bars, but they will still cost the same! What other examples of #shrinkflation have you seen around? pic.twitter.com/flQOPnoJAp

This is a sign of the times. You may remember in July 2017, the ONS confirmed that 2,529 products shrank in size between January 2012 and June 2017 but their price remained the same. The vast majority of the affected products were food and drink.

Whilst that process has slowed in recent years, we can expect a new wave of shrinking products. The phenomenon was embraced by the market as a consequence of the last recession. No food producers wanted to increase the on-the-shelf price but, at the same time, they needed to cover the cost of rising overheads and limited volume growth in the packaged food market. The solution was to modestly reduce the size as consumers, generally, don't notice.

11.28am BST

In China, investors are reeling from the worst week's losses in four months.

Despite rising 0.6% today, the CSI 300 index has slumped by 4.3% this week - the biggest drop since 16-20 March.