Eurozone crisis live: Another Friday the 13th horror story? 9.24am: Italian industrial production kept falling in February, highlighting the difficulties thrown up by spending cuts. Italian industrial output was weaker than expected in February, falling 0.7%, compared with forecasts of a 0.2% drop. Figures for January were revised down from -2.5% to -2.6%. Italy industrial production vs GDP growth. Source: Thomson Reuters Datastream Industrial production has fallen 6.8% over the year, compared with forecasts of a decline of 5.1%. As the chart shows, it's been a pretty clear indicator of Italian GDP in the past. 9.22am: It's a long way away but it's the second biggest economy in the world, so we'll have a quick look at the GDP data out of China. Overnight, first quarter Chinese GDP came in below expectations, with the economy growing by 8.1% year-on-year, its slowest pace in nearly three years. The Chinese economist at Deutsche Bank believes that the government will react to this weaker-than-expected growth rate by introducing more policy measures to boost lending, speed up project starts, encourage consumption, and support property sales. Jun Ma also believes the trough of sequential growth is likely behind us. The picture was mixed. Other data out of China overnight was marginally better than expectations. Industrial production rose 11.9% year-on-year, compared with forecasts of 11.6%, and retail sales rose 15.2% year-on year, compared with forecasts of 15.1%. That may explain why the reaction in the markets has been muted. The FTSE is down by just 0.4% at the moment. 9.16am: We've got some analyst reaction to the surge in Spanish banks' ECB borrowings to a record high in March. Martin van Vliet of ING says: The increase in the overall borrowing figure was primarily driven by a surge in the use of LTROs (from €152.3bn to €315.3bn). This confirms our suspicion that the second 3-year LTRO that settled on 1 March was dominated by Spanish banks. Specifically we estimate that banks in Spain took up more than one third of the total. Most of the LTRO money is being used to refinance maturing bank debt, but a decent chunk of it has and will be used to fund the Spanish sovereign. While this has helped reduce funding pressures on the Spanish government, it has reinforced the link between Spanish banks and their sovereign. Funding liquidity is one thing, solvency is another: the ECB's 3-year LTROs have done little to fundamentally improve the solvency situation of either the banking sector or the sovereign, which is where recent investor concern has centered on. For this to happen, we would likely need to see a sustained return to economic growth and an imminent end to the real estate slump, both of which currently seem a long way off. 8.59am: Spanish banks borrowed €316.3bn from the ECB in March compared with €169.8bn in February. 8.36am: There's more noises out of the European Central Bank that it wants to scale back its measures to address the eurozone crisis. German board member of the bank Jorg Asmussen says the ECB has done its part in fighting the crisis, and it is now up to governments to do their part. He says the LTRO didn't solve problems, but it bought time and alleviated deleveraging pressures. Non-standard measures are temporary and exceptional by nature, he adds. That includes the bond buying programme, which the markets are hoping will be reactivated, after Benoit Coere said earlier in the week that it is still a policy option. Asmussen says the ECB will act when needed, adding that he sees signs of stabilisation in sovereign debt markets though it is still a fragile environment. ECB executive board member Jorg Asmussen. Photograph: John Thys/AFP/Getty Images He says the short-term negative impact of fiscal consolidation on growth is offset by confidence effects. The Greeks may disagree. And the fiscal compact is the first step and right step towards fiscal union, but the region will need further steps. Europeans have done their part, he says, alluding to the decision on the eurozone firewall, now non-European partners should contribute to IMF resources. That may meet with some resistance. 8.30am: Markets are slightly lower after data out of China showing the economy grew at its slowest pace in nearly three years in the first quarter. FTSE 100: down 0.3%, or 17 points, at 5693 German DAX: down 0.2% French CAC: down 0.4% Spanish IBEX: down 1% Italy's FTSE MIB: down 0.6% French president Nicolas Sarkozy takes part in a televised debate on Thursday night. Photograph: Thomas Samson/AP 8.06am: French president Nicolas Sarkozy said Britain is in "a far worse economic situation than France," in a televised debate last night. With the first round of the presidential elections little more than a week away, Sarkozy faces a tough fight against French Socialist presidential candidate Francois Hollande. Some polls suggest Sarkozy would beat Hollande in the first round on April 22, but would still lose in a likely second-round on May 6. During the debate, Sarkozy took aim at the Financial Times, accusing it of blindly supporting the "Anglo-Saxon model" of economics. They don't agree with me, which I really rejoice in that, you know, because I don't agree with them. The FT, as they say in informed circles, has always defended the Anglo-Saxon model, considering the French incorrigible and that we would do better to align ourselves to the Anglo-Saxon model. The FT explains to us that it is necessary to act exactly like Britain, which is in a far worse economic situation than France. Separately, it emerged that Sarkozy had falsely bragged during an election rally that he had visited the Fukushima nuclear plant after last year's Japanese earthquake. He didn't, in fact, leave Tokyo on his visit to Japan. A poll, carried out by CSA on April 10 and 11, showed both leading candidates lost ground since a comparable poll a week ago. Hollande lost two percentage points to 27% and is now ahead of Sarkozy, who lost four percentage points to 26%. 8.04am: It's all about the inflation data today, with figures from Spain, Italy and the US. We've also got a few ECB members speaking. German consumer price index for March: 7am BST • ECB board member Jorg Asmussen speaks: 7.55am BST • Spain consumer price index for March: 8am BST • Italy industrial production for February: 9am BST • UK producer price index for March: 9.30am BST • Italy consumer price index for March: 10am BST • Bank of France governor Christian Noyer speaks: 10.30am BST • ECB council member Klaas Knot speaks: 11.30 BST • US consumer price index for March: 1.30pm BST • US University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey: 2.55pm BST • ECB council member Carlos Costa speaks: 3pm BST • Fed chairman Ben Bernanke speaks: 6pm BST In the debt markets the UK is selling £3.5bn of treasury bills, and Belgium is selling some non-benchmark government bonds. 7.40am: Good morning and welcome to our rolling coverage of the eurozone financial crisis. Markets this morning are likely to be spooked by GDP figures out of China, where the economy grew at its weakest pace in nearly three years in the first quarter. We've had inflation figures out of Germany, where consumer prices rose by 0.3% in March, compared with 0.7% in February. There's more inflation data out later from Italy, Spain and the US. Then over in New York, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke will give his reflections on the crisis and the policy response.