Davos 2013: Boris to push for investment over austerity at WEF Yet while the prices ares high, at over 52 Swiss francs (£34) for a steak, you'll find they aren't for Davos. The combination of a super-strong currency, despite authorities" moves to cap its strength, and a captive (moneyed) market trapped for a week in small ski resort means a simple plate of pasta will set you back close to £20 at your average restaurant. Still, the place gets some big spenders passing through. Eating at the Alte Post with colleagues earlier this week - there are not many options in Davos - an American on the table next to us was ordering champagne with gusto. And if Cameron did stick to the pizza, as is rumoured, he is missing out. I tried an unpronounceable Swiss dish featuring dumplings, cheese and spinach. Delicious - and certainly not the most expensive thing on the menu. 12.31 Telegraph's head of business Damian Reece is live tweeting from the Boris lunch. He 's really big-ing up London (obviously - he is the mayor). 12.20 Back to ECB President Mario Draghi who was speaking earlier today. Louise Armitstead was in his session and reports: The boss of the European Central bank said the "jury is still out" over whether his radical bond buying programmes are enough to stablise the eurozone. He said the combined force of the LTRO and OMTs had "removed the tail-risk" from the euro. But he said: "Are we satisfied? All in all the jury is still out. We haven't seen the momentum transfer to the real economy yet. He said the programmes had injected "positive contagion" into global stock and bond markets resulting in rising equities and falling borrowing costs. However, he said: "We don't see this transmitted into the real economy." He dashed the hopes of those calling for more ECB intervention, insisting that the next step to recovery depended on national governments pushing through reforms. He dubbed 2012 as the "year of the relaunch of the euro," when the euro project was not just saved but pushed forward towards its original goals of greater integration and unity. He said 2013 had to be the "year of implementation -decisions have been made, we now have to do it." He said Europe was starting the year in conditions that were "considerably more favourable than last year." He said the economy was starting from a "very low level" but he expected "to see a recovery in the second half of the year." 12.09 Aside from the tennis, Boris Johnson is about to sit down at lunch and 'sock it to Davos elite" - I quote the Telegraph's head of business Damian Reece. 12.02 Work has been put on hold in Davos briefly as a group builds to watch the climax of the Australian Open semi-final between Andy Murray and Roger Federer. 11.51 Christine Lagarde, who has just been in a session discussing women's role in economic decision making, is also tweeting from Davos, and she is very happy to be there. She had this to say before she took to the stage... ...and this after. 11.44 The Telegraph's assistant editor Jeremy Warner has done a blog from Davos looking at this mornings GDP figures and he asks "does anyone believe the GDP figures any more?" 11.28 Yahoo!'s chief executive Marissa Mayer has been speaking at the WEF and she appears to be a very popular lady if the size of the queue to get into her session is anything to go by. Louise Armitstead reports. Just emerged from a session with Marissa Mayer, chief executive of Yahoo! I was lucky to get in - the queue stretched across the hall and almost a revolt when half those waiting were turned away. So many people tried to watch the live stream that it crashed, apparently. Mayer said Yahoo! had tracked the evolution of the internet - first it was a directory, then the growth of the web brought search, then social networking and user content... the " next big hurdle" is mobile, she said. The opportunities are already tapped of location and activity recognition - where your device literally tracks you and can point you towards a restaurant, museum or golf club you might be interested in. The internet is going to get even more personal, she said, with the "interest graph" taking over from social connections. So rather than being merely linked to people because you went to the same university or live in the same town, you'll be linked to people who have the same interests and ideas. "For instance," said Mayer. I just found out that I did the same major as Reid Hoffman, the founder of Linkin, Symbolic Systems at Stanford. For those who already find the internet too much of an intrusive Big Brother, Mayer had good news: she believes that your "interest graph" and in fact everything you type into the search box should belong to you. "Did you own the essay you wrote at college," she asked. Your searches clearly won't be as prosaic but there are still "your thoughts, your ideas, your interests" and soon you will be able to retain them and move them as a asset. Mayer described a "search account" that would store all your searches and internet activity that providers could use to help you - but "they need to deliver on that promise or you will move it elsewhere," she said. She predicted that the panic over privacy would subside - "Privacy is always a trade off," she said. When you give part of it up, you get something bigger in return. 11.14 David Cameron and George Osborne appeared to be in high spirits over dinner at a pizza restaurant last night just hours before figures showed the economy is slipping back towards recession Their meal of choice was none other than pizza - apparently! Here is a picture from Greenpeace's head of media Ben Stewart twitter feed @benstewart999. 10.59 More from that women's session in WEF. Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg is sitting alongside Christine Lagarde and has an interesting reponse to one of her questions. 10.48 IMF head honcho Christine Lagarde has been speaking in a session this morning about women in economic decision making. Emma Rowley reports First panel I've seen so far where women are in the majority - and, unsurprisingly, it's the session on women in economic decision-making (i.e. how to get more of us doing just that). Christine Lagarde, who as the head of the IMF must be the most senior women in global economics, touches on her personal experience. On the gender front, I think there are huge upside risks about embracing the cause of diversity. In terms of what difference it makes, I think we all come ... with our heritage. Very often, as a little girl then as a young woman, I have suffered my lot of discrimination. I was brought up with brothers, I grew up in a boys" world.... you have to elbow your way in." And what does it mean if you can elbow through to the top? "You are much more attentive to minorities," Lagarde argues. I think I listen more, am more attentive to those in the back of the room who sit in the dark. She adds that "typically, people say women are team players. I think that's partly because of our history. 10.32 The Telegraph's head of business Damian Reece has some thoughts on George Soros's speech last night warning Britain against leaving the EU. He reports. I was taken by the comments of George Soros here in Davos on Thursday night that David Cameron was undertaking a "dangerous gambit" when it came to the UK's relationship with the European Union. The one time hedge fund manager turned social commentator said any threat to leave the EU would be detrimental. This from a man for whom gambits were a way of making a living, none less so than the billions he made from betting against sterling during the crisis of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. He succeeded back then because Norman Lamont was trying to defend the indefensible and keep sterling within a currency system that was clearly not working for the UK. While eurosceptics would argue Cameron's desire to keep the UK within the EU (albeit with a renegotiated position) is still defending the indefensible, the Prime Minister has at least given the British people the opportunity to choose for themselves. Taking that "gambit" has got to be preferable to the debacle of the ERM, when the UK was forced out against its will by unelected market speculators such as Soros. Soros was, of course, merely following the logic of markets, which many of us agreed with at the time, that sterling could not and should not be any part of a single currency experiment. However, it's far better that the British people choose their political and economic fate than leave it up to the vagaries of hedge fund managers and their opaque profit motives. 10.19 Lord Turner, the man once tipped as the next governor of the Bank of England, has been walking the halls of the WEF in Davos and he bumped in to our very own Jeremy Warner. He reports: I run into Lord Turner, who is now working out his last few months as chairman of the Financial Services Authority. Having missed out to Mark Carney, also here in Davos, to be Governor of the Bank of England, I ask him what he's going to do next. He's not decided, though he is planning to give a speech at the Cass Business School the week after next outlining his ideas for getting the UK out of its economic funk. Freed from the shackles of high office, he'll be able to be as forthright as he likes. As for the longer term, what about governor of the Bank of Canada, a position which was recently advertised in the Economist following Mr Carney's move to London? Unfortunately, one of the job's specifications is that you have to be a Canadian citizen. A certain lack of reciprocity there, I think. 10.10 Popping back to the UK, to get reaction to that worse-than-expected GDP number. The pound has been "slaughtered" as one anaylst put it. It has fallen to its lowest level against the euro since December 2011. Here you can see how the pound reacted in interday trading. You can read more economist reaction to the GDP figures here and you can read the full story here. 09.58 Goldman Sachs' Lloyd Blankfein was speaking this morning at the WEF and has spoken of the danges of Britain leaving the EU. Jeremy Warner reports: Britain's competitiveness and its attractions as a financial centre would be harmed if it were to leave the European Union, the chairman of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein has said here in Davos. However, he didn't believe that raising the issue in the way David Cameron, the prime minister, did in a speech this week, was in itself detrimental. "It is salutary that these issues are being discussed," he said. It just brings a simmering issue to the forefront. I regard that as healthy. Mr Blankfein also defended the bank's recent attempt to delay the payment of London bonuses so as to take advantage of the forthcoming cut in the top rate of income tax. "People organise their affairs to take advantage of the tax regime," he said. That's not bad behaviour...We have a saying in the US which is that it is not even a patriotic duty to maximise your tax liability. But he accepted that Goldman had to be sensitive to public opinion and said he had been very influenced by the press in deciding on a later climbdown. Talking in more general terms about London's success as an international financial centre, he said the key advantage was the rule of law. Can you sue in the commercial courts and get justice? Can you sue a local if not a local? Can you sue the sovereign and get fair treatment. You can do these things in the UK. He also cited tax as another key driver of competitiveness. Having a 75pc marginal tax rate in France is not going to make people go there. Maybe people will still go there, but it would have to be a very attractive opportunity. 09.42 Louise is tweeting from Draghi's speech. Draghi says he foresees a recovery in the eurozone in the second half of this year. 09.32 ECB president Mario Draghi is in the main conference hall now to speak on lessons from the past and to look and challenges in the years to come. You can watch it live here. Louise Armitstead is in the room. She reports: First up in the main congress hall at Davos is "Super" Mario Draghi, boss of the European Central Bank. He has been widely credited with pulling back the eurozone from the brink of collapse with his LTRO radical bond buying programme. Even Angel Merkel, a staunch opponent of expanding the central bank mandate had some words of praise for him yesterday. But all around Davos the role of central banks has been debated at length - should their mandates be curbed or expanded, what is the impact of their vast intervention. For the ECB, which has a far smaller role than the Fed, these questions are intricately tied up with the next phase of stabilising the eurozone. 09.30 Britain's GDP fell 0.3pc in the final quarter of 2012, below forecasts which had predicted flat or a smaller fall of -0.1pc. 09.26 In Cameron's speech in Davos yesterday, he launched an outspoken attack on corporate tax avoidance telling firms that they needed to "wake up and smell the coffee" in reference to the recent furore over the tax affairs of the Starbucks coffee chain. Well it has received a thumbs down from the FTSE100 businesses to David Cameron's call for more tax disclosure, the Daily Telegraph discloses today. Christopher Hope reports: The leaders of Britain's biggest multi-national companies have warned David Cameron to abandon plans which will force them to disclose details of their businesses' tax affairs, warning that it threatens to undermine the economic recovery. ...[Cameron} said that firms have a moral duty to pay tax - in comments which angered global business leaders meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Read the letters in full by clicking the article. 09.14 It appears that David Cameron's speeches in recent days, both in London and in Davos, are the top subject of (Twitter) conversation. Emma Rowley reports: The 'Davos Pulse' screen tracking Twitter activity says 'Cameron' tops the list of words trending here over the last 24 hours, followed by 'Merkel', 'leaders', 'ministers' and 'business'. Something he said? Meanwhile I'm in an enormous queue - biggest I've seen so far - to hear Tim Berners-Lee speak. Few grumbles of "You pay all this money and then you have to stand in line." 09.02 The Sunday Telegraph's Kamal Ahmed was at the Soros dinner last night and recorded some audio that you can listen to at your leisure. At dinner last night, anyone who thought that the world was looking up need only listen to George Soros for a little perspective. Soros, now retired but still the fund manager investors like to listen to, warned of currency wars as nations try and export their way to growth via devaluation, that the "discipline" of austerity was happening at precisely the wrong moment in the cycle for the West and that China's future growth prospects were questionable. George Soros warns the euro could destroy the EU at Davos WEF by KamalAhmed 08.50 At a dinner at the World Economic Forum, billionaire investor George Soros warned Britain that a referendum on leaving the European Union would be a "dangerous gambit." Kamal Ahmed and Louise Armitstead report: Formerly one of the world's most powerful fund managers, he said any threat to leave the EU would be detrimental. At a dinner at the World Economic Forum, he revealed that the market was betting that sterling would fall in value. Asked if he would once again bet against the pound - as he famously did during the Exchange Rate Mechanism crisis - he said: "the markets are ... I've retired." Mr Soros said the UK was in the perfect position at present as a member of the EU but not a member of the eurozone. Any change in that status will be detrimental and less favourable to Britain. It [the referendum] is a very dangerous gambit which could end up in Britain leaving. He added austerity was the "wrong policy at this time," but quantitative easing was the right policy: "You can only grow your way out of excessive debt. You can't shrink your way out of it. 08.38 Goldman Sachs' chief executive Lloyd Blankfein has been spotted this morning on the way to his session where he will be speaking about competitiveness. Our very own Emma Rowley tweeted: Emma has also been "networking" on her way to the conference centre this morning.: Today the weather's pretty gloomy in Davos. It's minus 6 and overcast. "At least when it's like this you don't mind being inside and are not thinking 'I should be on the slopes'," said one attendee. Luckily, no one really has to walk anywhere, as there's a deeply efficient system of shuttle buses ferrying us around (I got two just to get to the conference centre this morning). In Davos, everything represents an opportunity for networking and my latest seatmates, two financiers, became firm friends over the half-hour journey, ticking off family, work, and the right parties to go to. Yahoo tonight, apparently. Where they were from was a bit unresolved - one couldn't really decide (British citizenship after stints in the US and Mexico, seemed to be the gist) - but money knows no borders, you could argue. He had gone for a career change, he confided, after having his own personal banking crisis. My wife asked me why are you working 16-hour days for shareholders? Now he's in private equity. Much more sensible, his seatmate agreed. 08.29 Here is a run down of those speakers that Louise mentioned (see below tweet) and the timings. All times are GMT. 08.00 Goldman Sachs' Lloyd Blankfein is part of a panel discussing the "Secrets of Competitiveness" 09.30 European Central Bank President Mario Draghi will be speaking in a session entitled "Lessons from the past; Challenges for years to come" 10.00 International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde and Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg will be on a panel in a session called "Women in Economic Decision Making." 10.15 Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer will take to the stage to talk about her ides on the future of technology 11.30 Boris Johnsonwill be speaking at the British Business Leaders' Lunch. 12.00 Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz will be part of a panel discussing governments role in steering the economy. And don't forget that the UK's GDP figures for the final quarter of last year will be out today - good or bad we'll know at 9.30am. 08.15 The Telegraph's chief business correspondent Louise Armitstead has noted some of the key speakers today at the WEF in Davos. 08.05 More on that Boris story that Kamal has mentioned below. Boris Johnson, speaking to the Daily Telegraph, said he was going to use his speech at lunchtime in Davos to demand that the Government "junks the rhetoric of austerity" and backs multi-billion pound investments in housing and transport. Kamal Reports: The Mayor of London will outline a seven point economic plan to business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos at lunchtime on Friday. Last year George Osborne gave the equivalent speech and David Cameron is a regular attendee. Mr Johnson told The Daily Telegraph that businesses needed to be given a dose of optimism and that criticising vital sectors like banking had to stop. It is also becoming increasingly clear that the Mayor now sees Stansted as the best option for airport expansion. Although Mr Johnson will say that there are still three "good" alternatives - the Essex airport and two being looked at in the Thames Estuary - sources close to the Mayor confirmed that Stansted now looked like the front runner to get his backing. 07.55 The Sunday Telegraph's business editor Kamal Ahmed has sent his daily look ahead as to what can be expected of today and there is one person in particular who should, as he normally does, make some interesting comments. It's arrived - Boris Johnson Day at the World Economic Forum. The Mayor of London, who has been in Davos for 36 hours, has been accorded the honour of speaking at the British Business Leaders' Lunch today. The last person to be asked to do that was George Osborne. And he's the Chancellor. As we reveal this morning, the Mayor of London will demand an end to the "rhetoric of austerity" and say to boost confidence we must stop bashing banks and infest heavily in housing and transport. Almost sounds like a manifesto. Interestingly there are also growing reports that Boris is moving to back Stansted as the best option for a new four runway hub airport. The Treasury has made it increasingly clear that it is not about to stump by the £30bn cost of building the infrastructure links needed for the same number of runways stuck in the middle of the Thames. Of course, whatever Johnson does say will be against the backdrop of the fourth quarter GDP figure this morning which is expected to show the economy is still flat-lining. If it is, indeed, a "bad" number, it is sure to increase demands for Osborne to loosen his belt a little on the cuts programme. Even though, as he pointed out yesterday, Britain still has a chronic deficit problem. Osborne will be reacting to the figures here in Davos. Beyond Boris - and yes, even here he is trailed as if some kind of minor rock star - we get the first glimpse since the financial crisis of that rare Davos beast - the lesser-spotted Lloyd Blankfein. The chief executive of Goldman Sachs has stayed away from Davos since 2008, maybe fearful of what he may face by way of protests both outside and inside the conference. Today, he'll be speaking about The Secrets of Competitiveness which to critics of the highly successful Goldman model can probably be summed in a series of swear words. He, though, knows that Goldman's is the model everyone else envies. There will also be discussion about women in business with the IMF director general, Christine Lagarde, and Facebook's chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg. Mario Draghi, the head of the European Central Bank, is also in town - maybe he'll respond to George Soros's broadside over dinner last night when he said austerity was killing the euozone. Soros's remedy? Open up the quantitative easing taps. Finally, I am sure one of the most interesting sessions will be with Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the internet. His session has a fascinating title - what is wrong with social networking. Whatever he says it is sure to get a strong reaction. On social networks in particular. 07.45 Good morning and welcome to the third full day of the World Economic Forum in Davos, known as Day Four (there was a welcome session on Tuesday). Just a quick reminder of the team in Davos from the Telegraph: