IMF warns Hunt against tax cuts; eurozone avoids recession – as it happened

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as the eurozone stagnates in the final quarter of 2023

• Eurozone narrowly avoids recession as German economy shrinks
• IMF says global economy heading for soft landing' after coping with inflation

Here's economist Julian Jessop on this morning's French GDP report:

In the City, Diageo, the world's top spirits maker, has missed first-half sales estimates this morning, following a sharp fall in demand in Latin America.

The first half of fiscal 24 was challenging for Diageo and our sector, particularly as we lapped strong growth in the prior year and faced an uneven global consumer environment. Excluding LAC, our group organic net sales grew 2.5%, driven by good growth in Europe, Asia Pacific and Africa. While North America delivered sequential improvement in line with our expectations, we are focused on returning to high-quality share growth as consumer behaviour continues to normalise in our largest region.

As previously announced in November 2023, materially weaker performance in LAC, driven by fast-changing consumer sentiment and high inventory levels, significantly impacted total business performance.