US ECONOMY
12:52: Radio 4 The latest estimate of US GDP for the fourth quarter of last year is due out in less than an hour. They are expected to be revised down because of the bad weather. Former adviser to President George W Bush, Pippa Malgrem, told Radio 4 earlier the economy was in pretty good health - to the extent that some Chinese companies - like Foxconn - have set up manufacturing there.

MARKETS UPDATE
12:47: Detecting a pulse on European stock markets remains difficult as lunchtime arrives. In sleepy trading the FTSE 100 is down 0.2%, with publisher Pearson (which owns the Financial Times) the biggest faller - down 7%. Frankfurt's Dax index is flickering between positive and negative, while Paris's Cac 40 is down 0.5%.

CYPRUS PRIVATISATION
12:38:
International efforts to bail out Cyprus are in doubt after its parliament rejected a key part of the plan. As part of the 10bn euro (£8.25bn; $13.7bn) deal with the EU and International Monetary Fund, lawmakers have until 5 March to pass a bill allowing state firms to be privatised. But on Thursday, they threw it out, jeopardising the next tranche of cash

INDIA ECONOMY
12:19:
Indian growth figures have just been released. The economy grew by 4.7% between October and December 2013 down from 4.8% in the previous quarter - the fifth consecutive month that GDP has been below 5% - and slightly worse than many analysts had been expecting.
Asia's third-largest economy has been weighed down by various factors,