Turkey’s lira and stock market tumble; travel stocks hit by holiday worries – business live

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

• Latest: Turkish tock market plunged over 8% this morning
• Bonds suffer biggest slump on record
• Turkey's president Erdoan fired central bank chief over weekend
  
• Governor dismissed after raising interest rates sharply
• Investors fear decision could backfire
  
• As bad as Brexit': Turkey faces currency crisis
• In London, travel stocks fall amid summer holiday worries

1.16pm GMT

A year of Covid-19 lockdowns has cost the UK economy 251bn - the equivalent of the entire annual output of the south-east of England or nearly twice that of Scotland, according to a report published on Monday.

Analysis by the Centre for Economics and Business Research found that while the whole of the country had suffered huge damage from restrictions on activity since the first national lockdown began, some poorer regions had suffered the most.

Related: A year of Covid lockdowns has cost the UK economy 251bn, study says

1.07pm GMT

The US economy contracted in February for the first time since the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic last April, according to the Chicago Fed's national activity index which was just released.

The index, which measures economic activity across the US, has fallen to -1.09 last month, down from +0.75 in January.

Uh-oh! The @ChicagoFed national activity index plummeted in February, turning negative and dropping to its lowest level since May last year. pic.twitter.com/OUoZh4WaOc

Is US economic rebound weaker than it appears? Possibly, according to today's Feb update of the Chicago Fed Nat'l Activity Index. The monthly & 3mo avg reflect weaker-than-expected results: https://t.co/cwp3hKBxqb
(1/2) pic.twitter.com/CZrNKPgAhV

(2/2) Note that today's update follows last Thursday's similarly soft print for the Philly Fed's ADS business cycle index: https://t.co/DmLmBSv3k4 pic.twitter.com/mheDGRnoJf