Davos 2018: Donald Trump booed over 'fake news' comments as global summit draws to a close - as it happened

Good morning, and welcome to our live coverage of the final day of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

US President Donald Trump - the first sitting commander in chief to attend since Bill Clinton - is to give the main closing address.

The "America First" President has already met leaders including Theresa May since landing in Switzerland on Thursday.

He made an immediate impression, talking up the dollar and going against the grain of previous remarks made by his treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin.

But the main thrust of his visit will be to convince business leaders to step up investment in the United States.

"A lot of people are coming back to the United States. We are seeing tremendous investment and today has been a very exciting day. Very great day and great for our country", Mr Trump told reporters on Thursday.

The billionaire's Friday appearance at Davos will follow his tentative apology for retweeting Islamophobic posts by the far-right group Britain First last November.

Speaking to Good Morning Britain's Piers Morgan in a clip circulated early this morning, Mr Trump said: "If you are telling me they’re horrible people, horrible, racist people, I would certainly apologise if you’d like me to do that."

Mr Trump and Ms May agreed on Thursday that they would "work together on finalising the details of a visit by the President to the UK later this year".

Downing Street said it was likely to be a working visit rather than a full state visit.

The agreement came only weeks after Mr Trump declined to come to the UK to open the new US embassy in Battersea, which he said was in an "off location".

One of the Davos panels is discussing rising rates of depression among young people.

The problem affects more than 300 million people around the world, according to the WEF.

Murali Doraiswamy, a doctor at Duke University in the US, suggests employers should turn off their email systems and allow workers to disconnect at the end of the day.

Details of Mr Trump's planned address are beginning to come out.

The US will not tolerate intellectual property theft, forced technology transfers or industrial subsidies, he will say, according to a US official.

His speech comes after a week of warnings by European leaders on the dangers of nationalism and isolationism.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel evoked the build-up to the two world wars and openly questioned whether leaders had learned lessons from the conflicts.

Before his trip to Davos, Mr Trump imposed 30 per cent tariffs on imported solar panels, among the first unilateral trade restrictions made by his administration as part of a broader protectionist agenda.

Additional reporting by Reuters

Bank of England governor Mark Carney is to address the WEF later today, alongside International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme earlier on Friday, he said the British economy could begin catching up with the rest of the world once the outcome of Brexit negotiations becomes clearer.

The UK, he said, was suffering from a short-term "Brexit effect" - with the economy expected to be down 2 per cent at the end of 2018 compared with what had been expected before the time of the EU referendum in 2016.

However, he said firms which had been putting off investment decisions could start investing again as greater clarity emerged.

The UK's financial sector "will be able to withstand" Brexit, he added.

Additional reporting by PA

Mr Trump is committed to ensuring all countries play by the same set of trade rules, according to a senior administration official this morning.

The message is the same as the US President's previous statements about how the US has been unfairly treated in commerce.

China has been a particular target of his ire.

Speaking at Davos, Mr Trump has dismissed as "fake news" a report that he tried to have Robert Mueller fired last year.

The New York Times first reported that the President had tried to get rid of the special counsel, but was thwarted when a senior member of staff threatened to resign over the move.

Mr Mueller is investigating alleged links between Mr Trump's campaign and Russia.

The UK economy grew by 0.5 per cent during the fourth quarter of 2017, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

Darren Morgan, its head of GDP, said: "Despite a slight uptick in the latest quarter, the underlying picture is of slower and uneven growth across the economy.

"The boost to the economy at the end of the year came from a range of services including recruitment agencies, letting agents and office management.

"Other services - notably consumer facing sectors - showed much slower growth. Manufacturing also grew strongly but construction again fell."

PA

US President Donald Trump arrives next to Klaus Schwab, right, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, ahead of his address on Friday (AFP/Getty Images) 

US administration officials are trying to play down an apparent split between Donald Trump and his treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, over whether they want a strong or weak dollar.

On Wednesday Mr Mnuchin said "a weaker dollar is good for us as it relates to trade and opportunities", causing European leaders and Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, to criticise him.

Mr Draghi noted that the US had signed an IMF communique last year promising to "refrain from competitive devaluations".

"The dollar is going to get stronger and stronger and ultimately I want to see a strong dollar", Mr Trump said the following day, adding that Mr Mnuchin's comments had been misinterpreted.

A senior administration official told reporters today: "I don't think there's any daylight between the President and Secretary Mnuchin."

Microsoft's president Brad Smith speaks at Davos (WEF) 

Tech companies like Microsoft have the "first responsibility" in protecting global systems against cyber attack, a Davos panel has heard.

Brad Smith, president of the operating system and laptop giant, told an audience: "We have the first responsibility to strengthen defences, to build more secure software, and we are the first responders.

"When there's an attack on cyberspace, fundamentally it is often against privately-owned property. It might be your property."

Attackers can utilise vulnerabilities in software to create havoc in datacentres and elsewhere, he said, adding: "We have this unique role to play in that regard and that has, I think, forced us to recognise the high responsibility we have."

Mr Smith's shouldering of responsibility comes days after a top general warned the UK Government Britain was "not immune" from cyber attack.

Calling for greater spending on the military, General Sir Nick Carter singled out Russia as a potential threat.

He said earlier this week: "Our ability to pre-empt or respond to threats will be eroded if we don’t keep up with our adversaries. State-based competition is now being employed in more novel and increasingly integrated ways and we must be ready to deal with them.

"The threats we face are not thousands of miles away but are now on Europe’s doorstep – we have seen how cyber warfare can be both waged on the battlefield and to disrupt normal people’s lives. We in the UK are not immune from that."