Morning business round-up: Japan quake rattles markets
What made the business news and moved the markets in Asia and Europe this morning? Here's our daily business round-up:
The Japanese earthquake unsettled many areas of the markets. Insurance shares fell particularly sharply, giving leading markets a negative end to the week.
The Japanese yen also fell on news of the 8.9 Richter scale impact.
In Europe, stocks were affected by the news, with bourses in London, Paris and Frankfurt opening lower.
But the eurozone's debt crisis also provided another focus.
Ministers from the 17-strong currency bloc were meeting in Brussels with a heavy agenda including closer economic co-operation and strengthening the defensive bail-out fund.
An emergency session to discuss the situation in Libya squeezed the time allowed for debate and major decisions on economic matters are expected to be shunted back to a broader European summit to be held at the end of the month.
Elsewhere in Asia, the latest economic news from China on inflation was viewed as encouraging. Chinese inflation stabilised in February, helped by government and central bank measures to rein in price growth.
Consumer prices rose 4.9% from a year earlier, the same rate as in January, the National Bureau of Statistics said.
The president of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino, said his administration will focus on tackling corruption and poverty, as well as trying to stop the country's most talented people seeking work abroad.
In an interview with the BBC, the President said corruption cases were being filed on an weekly basis.
He said the government would also lift social spending and job creation.
And a surprise departure - the head of GM finance has left the carmaker - after taking the company through its first profitable year since 2004.
At a press conference, Chris Liddell said he didn't want to be a chief financial officer any more.
Mr Liddell was passed over for the top job at GM last year.
Finally, for a listen to some of the wider trends in the world of business and economics, click through to our Business Daily podcast which is looking at the carbon footprint of China, the world's biggest polluter. It asks: Can China go green?