"The national economy in the first quarter presented continued momentum of stable recovery. However, we must be aware that the COVID-19 epidemic is still spreading globally and the international landscape is complicated, with high uncertainties and instabilities ... long-standing structural problems remain."
The statement from China's National Bureau of Statistics showed that policymakers are remaining cautious about the outlook, despite figures from the first quarter that show the economy appears to have made a full recovery from the pandemic.
GDP grew by just under a fifth in the first quarter, its fastest rate since quarterly performance figures began to be collected in 1992.
In encouraging signs for other nations, analysts say China has benefited from strong, pent-up consumer demand as lockdown conditions end.
Elsewhere, new figures suggest that as much as $1.4 trillion in assets may have moved from the City of London to other EU markets post-Brexit.
The main beneficiary is Dublin, as the Irish capital's role as a major financial center continues to go from strength to strength.
The craze for all things crypto briefly caused the Robinhood trading platform to go offline late on Thursday.
After Coinbase's flotation as a public firm, crypto-currencies have continued to boom, despite Turkey becoming the first nation to officially ban the use of Bitcoin as a payment method.
The Russian ruble is continuing its losing streak on the world's markets after U.S. President Joe Biden announced fresh sanctions on Moscow.
Scroll down for our video on events in Ukraine for some of the background to what is going on.
And garden centers are reporting a shortage of ornamental gnomes, blaming the recent grounding of the container ship in the Suez canal.
As our graph shows, whether it is gnomes, outdoor furniture or pot plants, sales of gardening goods have shot up in lockdown.
Read on for all the day's business news in full.
Louise Greenwood,
Digital correspondent
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Source: Reuters
China's economy grew at the fastest rate on record in the first three months of 2021, up 18.3 percent. It follows a historic contraction in the first quarter of last year of 6.8 percent due to the outbreak of COVID-19, with growth recovering all lost ground by the end of September. It's the biggest jump in gross domestic product (GDP) since quarterly records began in 1992.
Strong industrial growth and demand for Chinese-made medical goods and electronic devices have seen economic expansion back above the rate it was at before the pandemic broke out.
The figures show industrial output rose 14.1 percent in March from a year before, retail sales expanded 34.2 percent ahead of expectations. Based on two-year average growth, GDP rose 5 percent. There are signs that policymakers are now seeking to cool inflation with greater controls on lending and the property market.
Separately figures out on Friday show China's house prices grew at the fastest pace in seven months in March. Prices for new developments in 70 cities rose 0.41 percent last month, with signs that demand is outstripping supply.
Mercedes-Benz sales in China rose 60 percent in the first three months of 2021, ahead of expectations. More than 220,000 vehicles were sold with "favorable sales momentum at Mercedes-Benz," the firm said in a statement. Adjusted group earnings before interest and tax jumped to $6 billion.
More than 400 financial firms in the UK have shifted $1.4 trillion in assets to other EU markets post-Brexit, according to new data. The New Financial think tank says the impact of the UK's departure from the bloc has been underestimated, with 7,400 jobs having been moved overseas as a result, with the COVID-19 travel restrictions only delaying further redeployment plans by top banks and other firms.
Dublin has emerged as the biggest beneficiary, with 135 groups relocating to the Irish capital, which is already a major EU financial center; followed by Paris, with 102; Luxembourg, with 95; Frankfurt with 63; and Amsterdam with 48 new firms. The report's authors claim banks have moved or are moving more than $1.2 trillion in assets from Britain to the EU, while insurers and asset managers have transferred more than $138 billion in assets and funds.
Banking giant Citigroup is closing its consumer operations in 13 countries across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Instead, the U.S. group, which has always maintained a strong presence in Asia, says it will operate from four regional hubs in Singapore, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and London. CEO Jane Fraser says the bank, which has reported a first-quarter net income of $7.9 billion, "does not have the scale" to compete in these 13 markets.
The trading platform at the center of the "Reddit Rally" activist campaign by day traders says it experienced a "major outage" late Thursday, as demand peaked for cryptocurrency-related stocks. On Twitter, Robinhood said it was "currently experiencing issues with crypto-trading… [and] working to resolve this as soon as possible." Full service has since resumed
Demand for crypto-stocks has reached new highs on world markets this week, with the flotation of online exchange Coinbase pushing the group's value to $100 billion, giving the nine-year-old firm a bigger capitalization than oil giant BP or pharmaceutical titan GlaxoSmithKline.
However, the price of Bitcoin has fallen slightly after a decision by Turkey's central bank to ban cryptocurrencies as a method of payment. In a statement, the CBRT said the use of cryptocurrencies and other crypto-assets would be prohibited from April 30 this year, citing the lack of "central authority regulation" and "supervision mechanisms" for virtual currencies.
It's estimated that $2.8 billion in cryptocurrency was traded in the days after President Erdogan ousted Central Bank governor Naci Agbal in a shock move last month, having hit a record $26 billion in the two months to the end of March. The ban, the first of its kind in Turkey, comes amid fears of capital controls being applied by the ruling AKP administration to prevent further asset outflows from Turkey's troubled economy.
The Russian ruble has continued to weaken on the money markets after U.S. President Joe Biden imposed sweeping sanctions on the country. As well as alleged interference in the November elections and the "SolarWinds" espionage hack, Washington has been alarmed by events in Ukraine, where it is estimated that upwards of 80,000 Russian troops are massing around the eastern Donetsk border region. The ruble was trading at just under 76 to the dollar by midday in London, with a fall of more than 3 percent recorded so far this month.
Europe's biggest holiday company says it's confident the summer season can be saved. Tui, which runs aircraft, cruise ships, and travel agencies to 180 countries, says bookings in March hit 2.8 million and it hopes to offer up to 75 percent of its normal schedule for this year, after losses in 2020.
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Australia's federal court has found Google misled some consumers about the collection of personal data through its Android mobile devices. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says it is seeking to impose penalties on Google, though hasn't given an amount. The case revolves around specific settings related to its location data collection and location history on Google Android devices.
Meanwhile, the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives has formally approved its report into "Big Tech" firms, ahead of expected congressional hearings into alleged anti-competitive practices.
Food delivery firm Deliveroo has apologized to riders after a software error meant some were overpaid a bonus after the group's recent flotation on the London stock market. A glitch meant that payouts of up to $13,750 had been offered from a $22 million thank you fund to staff, some of whom have taken industrial action over pay and conditions. In a statement, the group said "A technical error meant a small number of riders were offered a higher payment than intended. We have apologized for this confusion," but declined to say if the cash would be clawed back
Amazon's outgoing CEO says the e-commerce giant must do more to care for employees in the future. In his final letter to shareholders, Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man, said: "It's clear to me that we need a better vision for how we create value for employees." His comments come just days after Amazon warehouse workers at its chief North America hub in Alabama voted against forming a union by a more than two to one margin.
Garden centers in the UK are reporting a shortage of ornaments after the recent blockage of the Suez Canal by the grounded container ship the Ever Given. Garden gnomes, in particular, are in high demand. Iain Wylie, CEO of the Garden Centre Association, said: "Garden centers were affected by the ship getting stuck in the canal as much as any other industry, garden furniture, ornaments, of which gnomes would be some, being stuck in containers trying to come over here."
WATCH: Ukraine is rehearsing repelling tank and infantry attacks near Crimea after a build-up of Russian troops led to heightening of tensions.
The world's biggest producer of semiconductor chips has warned that the global shortage is likely to last into next year. TSMC in Taiwan reported a strong quarterly profit as car and electronics manufacturers cut production.
CGTN Europe spoke to Matt Hanson, senior editor for TechRadar, the UK's biggest technology website, and asked him for more on what's going on.
It's a bit of a perfect storm, really, so the pandemic has definitely had a big impact. A lot of people are working from home, that means that around about this time last year, there was a huge boom in people looking to buy laptops, webcams and other bits and pieces. Then, later on in last year, we had both Invidia and AMD releasing new graphics cards and we had Sony and Microsoft releasing new games consoles ... there was like a big backlog of orders. And there are only a few chip makers in the world these days, and they have a lot of big customers with a lot of big orders.
What are companies doing to manage the shortage?
Part of their plan is that they're going to increase capacity in the future, they going to invest money, they are very rich companies because they've got a lot of big customers who are spending a lot of money with them, so, new locations, new plants to help increase their capacity for getting these chips. From an outsider's perspective, they keep on seeming to take on new orders and new customers. That's going to add extra pressure to their ability to meet demand.
And finally, ornamental gnomes may be in short supply but with new rules in place on outdoor socializing, garden centers across the UK (which have been allowed to stay open in lockdown) are reporting bumper sales.