we'll just hand it over to mervin king.ll stay with and listen in for his opening remarks. >> inflation has already fallen halfway back to the 2% target. these remain challenging times for the u.n. economy. substantial winds are hampering our recovery and balancing. today's report shows that further prospects as an effect of skperm factors wain and a weak outgrowth adds to the margin of the slack in economy. nevertheless growth is likely to recover. supported by rising incomes and stimulus provided by the asset purchases announced last week. the uns estimates that the economy contracted slightly in the final quarter of 2011. completing a year in which growth disappoints. and the figures released this morning shows that the unemployment rate is now 8.4%. all though it suggests a brighter picture for activity at the beginning of this year, the fiscal consolidation and tight credit conditions at home and the weakness of our major overseas trading partners are acting as a drag on growth. the underlying need for repair of balanc

mervin king laying out the inflation forecast for the year.y say that forecasting inflation could be below forecasting. that 2% target. of course a similar amount of qe. so this is suggesting the door is open on more qe but it's a highly uncertain outlook. he's also said you cannot prepare for the unforeseeable consequences of a greek default if there was to be a disorderly greek default. dax up 1%. they contract 1 pnlts 2% in the second quarter. we were forecasting minus 0.3%. the french economy expanded in the corner. the contraction was worse. we've seen the euro dollar pretty steady throughout the session. the yen weakening. that follows from the bank of japan. the euro/yen is stronger. dollar yen up in the two-momtd highs at 789 pchblts 52. sterling also reacting not only to the bank of england inflation but it went up. but we had it. also relating to the fact that the outlook is very uncertain. we've just had the greek finance minister saying some euro members are playing with fire that they might be rejected aed from the euro or has sug