Yes, Berlusconi is the candidate for premier Berlusconi has given several hints of late that he was planning a return to politics, complaining about his successor Mario Monti's austerity policies and musing openly about the possibility of Italy exiting the euro. 09.09 According to ECB data, Spanish banks borrowed €365bn in June versus €325bn in May - a new record. 09.07 Damian Reece, Telegraph head of business, has focused on the UK's "funding for lending" scheme. Details of the Bank of England's plan are due to be unveiled today. The Bank of England will this morning unveil details of its funding for lending scheme which it hopes will make £80bn of cheap, four year, money available to lenders to pass on to companies seeking debt finance. Banks can access the scheme on condition they use the funds to make loans, rather than refinance their own balance sheets. A seperate £5bn a month facility, available for 12 months, has been set up for that purpose. Previous schemes to boost lending have failed, reflecting the fact that demand for credit is falling as companies suffer a lack of confidence caused by the eurozone crisis which is holding back investing and spending - a point Sir Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank, himself made in a BBC radio interview on Tuesday. Lenders will not extend loans to any but the most credit worthy of borrowers as they avoid the previous mistakes of loose credit conditions which caused the credit crisis in the first place. Sir Mervyn will announce the scheme at 10am this morning so come back to telegraph.co.uk for all the details. 09.02 German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler feels the Troika is "at the end of its patience" with Greece. 08.51 European Union Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia has said he's investigating alleged rigging of Libor rates. The story is quite shocking. We are focusing our investigations on suspected cartel arrangements involving financial derivatives related to these benchmark rates, including possible collusion over the setting of the rates. 08.49 We are hearing that Italian final inflation figures for June have been delayed for an hour due to strike action by statistics agency staff. They will now be released at 10am. 08.48 Italy faces a key bond auction of €5.25bn today, just hours after it was downgraded by Moody's. Ten-year Italian government bond yields rose 13 basis points to 6.04pc, a level widely seen as unsustainable in the long term. 08.45 In the markets: 08.42 Spain's inflation rate has risen to 3.6pc in June from 3.4pc the month before. 08.38 China's economy grew at 7.6pc in the second quarter, its slowest expansion since the aftermath of the financial crisis. The Telegraph's Malcolm Moore writes that the National Bureau of Statistics said growth had slowed from 8.1pc in the first quarter of the year. In 2011, China's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 9.2pc. The Chinese government has been determined to cool growth, after the exuberance of 2009 when it pumped nearly 14 trillion yuan (£1.4 trillion) of stimulus money and new bank loans into the economy to safeguard China from the financial crisis. In the wake of that acceleration, inflation rose from less than 3pc in July 2010 to a high of 6.5pc last July. It has since fallen back to 2.2pc last month. The property market, meanwhile, gave every impression of being a bubble ready to burst. China's leaders have now promised to stop focusing on the speed of economic expansion and instead on the "quality" of growth, in a bid to rebalance the economy away from low-end manufacturing and heavy investment and towards consumption and services. 08.31 US ratings agency Moody's downgraded Italy's government bond rating by two notches, citing the knock-on effects of a possible Greek exit from the eurozone and Spain's banking woes. US ratings agency Moody's downgraded Italy's government bond rating by two notches, citing the knock-on effects of a possible Greek exit from the eurozone and Spain's banking woes. 08.24 The Government launched its funding-for-lending scheme earlier this summer, designed to reduce the cost of borrowing for banks so they pass on cheap cash to businesses, which expand and inflate the sagging economy. Late last night Sky News reported that there would be a league table to "name and shame" those banks that aren't participating. It's reported that the Bank of England will announce the plan later today. We'll bring you more on that as we have it. 08.20 Michel Barnier, the EU commissioner responsible for the single market and regulation, said yesterday that Europe needs a central finance minister answerable to national parliaments and EU politicians to pave the way for closer integration: My conviction is that we should have an EU finance minister, subject to strong democratic control from the European Parliament and national parliaments. At some point in the future, I also believe that we should combine the role of the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council 08.00 Good morning and welcome back to our live coverage of the European debt crisis.