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That may be all from us in Davos tonight.

There are some interesting regional differences within CEOs, PwC says.

In Europe, bosses are more awake to climate - both as a threat and an opportunity.

While in the US, CEOs are simply more confident in their ability to grow revenues this year.

Q: Does rising pessimism mean we risk a recession next year?

PwC predicts a slowing global economy, but not a recession in 2020.

That chimes with the IMF’s new, lower growth forecasts for 2020 and 2021 this morning.

Onto questions...

Q: This survey took place in the autumn, before the US-China trade deal, so are CEOs probably more optimistic today?

Moritz agrees that some pessimism has eased, but there’s still plenty of uncertainty - especially with a presidential election in November.

Q: Stock markets are at record highs, so what are they seeing that your CEOs aren’t?

Moritz points out that the markets are “flush with cash”, meaning investors are scrambling to find an asset with a yield - driving prices up.

Q: So is there going to be a correction?

You may see some companies struggle to justify the valuations out there, Moritz says.... but he’s not going to predict who, or when.....

Q: Is there any hope of tackling the climate emergency, if it’s not even in the top 10 risks which CEOs are worried about?

PwC’s Bob Moritz suggests that CEOs do have lots of other immediate risks to worry, which have pushed climate down their agenda.

The key is for business leaders to see climate as an “upside opportunity”, not a downside risk, he says.

He’s talking about “purpose and profit being aligned together” -- a modern spin on the old adage of ‘going well by doing good’, perhaps?

Why are business leaders gloomier?

Bob Moritz, chair of PwC, says the magnitude, and the range, of risks facing business chiefs is pushing confidence down.

It’s not all gloom -- he reckons the Phase One US-China trade deal has lifted sentiment, as has Boris Johnson’s decisive election win last month.

But the survey is certainly gloomy.

For example, the number of CEOs are very confident in their firm’s ability to grow its revenue has fallen steadily.

As usual, the World Economic Forum is beginning with its Crystal Awards ceremony. I’ll post proper details later, but for now....

Hello from Davos. This quiet ski resort is filling up with scores of limousines, plenty of police and a horde of the so-called Global Elite.

Business leaders, academics, campaigners and the media are back for the 50th World Economic Forum.

And corporate signs are EVERYWHERE - Facebook has apre-fabricated HQ in the middle of town. SAP, Amazon Web Services and Accenture all have prime spots too, along with Zurich who are giving out their traditional blue hats to the masses.

All quite remarkable. Still, we’ll have the opening ceremony later, plus a big survey of CEOs by PwC.

The press conference has finished.

Copinath is now talking about rising political tensions in the Middle East.

The reaction has been fairly muted.

She notes that the price of oil has gone up by $3 to $4.

Moving on to another topic... social unrest. The IMF’s chief economist says:

Social unrest picked up quite sharply in 2019 in many parts of the world, for different reasons.

She stresses that governments’ social spending must be well targeted to protect the poor.

She is now taking questions about climate change, which the IMF has identified as a major risk to the world economy.

It is a major issue and countries should display all the political will that is needed to get the job done.

Copinath says the IMF had been hoping for a more comprehensive trade deal between the US and China. The two biggest economies have been locked in a trade dispute since June 2018.

She says the phase one trade deal between the US and China, signed last week, is estimated to reduce the cumulative negative impact on global growth to 0.5% from the previously estimated 0.8%, between 2018 and 2020.

Here is our full story on the IMF’s latest outlook.

Over to the IMF’s chief economist Gita Copinath, who says:

We are projecting a modest recovery in growth.

The IMF’s head has told policymakers to “be ready to act if growth slows again”.

You can watch the press conference live here.

She has summarised the outlook thus: “Tentative stabilisation, sluggish recovery.”

In Davos, the IMF’s managing director Kristalina Georgiev is discussing the IMF’s World Economic Outlook.

She says the world economy remains “sluggish” and that everyone is adjusting to live with the “new normal” of greater uncertainty.

The World Economic Forum’s 2020 Global Risks Report ranks biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse as one of the top five threats faced by humanity in the next ten years.

Its research shows that $44 trillion of economic value generation – over half the world’s total GDP – is moderately or highly dependent on nature and its services. Nature loss matters for most businesses – through impacts on operations, supply chains, and markets.

The question is to what extent the Davos participants – political and business leaders – will act on the various reports and their findings.

But the overriding theme at Davos looks to be the climate crisis. Is the World Economic Forum becoming the World Climate Forum?

Climate activist Greta Thunberg, who is attending Davos again after her first appearance last year, wrote in the Guardian recently:

We demand that at this year’s forum, participants from all companies, banks, institutions and governments immediately halt all investments in fossil fuel exploration and extraction, immediately end all fossil fuel subsidies and immediately and completely divest from fossil fuels.

We don’t want these things done by 2050, 2030 or even 2021, we want this done now – as in right now.

While we wait for the global economic forecasts from the International Monetary Fund, out at 1pm GMT, the Bundesbank has released growth estimates for Germany.

The German economy grew last year at the slowest pace since 2013, the country’s central bank estimates. Hit by weaker exports, Germany is expected to have expanded by just 0.6% in 2019, the lowest since the eurozone’s debt crisis. Exports have been hit by China’s economic slowdown and trade wars.

Following a boom in recent years, activity in Germany’s manufacturing sector “declined strongly and in a broad range of sectors,” the Bundesbank said.

The Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, will not attend Davos because its organisers “abruptly changed its agenda,” according to a foreign ministry spokesman.

Tensions are high between the US and Iran. Earlier this month, Iran launched missile strikes aimed at US troops in Iraq in what it said was retaliation for the killing of the top Iranian general Qassem Suleimani. Tehran also admitted shooting down a passenger jet, after denying it for several days. The belated admission sparked protests across the country.

Over in Davos, climate protesters marched to the ski resort yesterday to highlight the escalating climate crisis.

It will be interesting to see how much of this is filtering through to the official event. At 1pm GMT, the World Economic Forum’s founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab and other WEF officials will hold a press conference to outline this year’s programme and participants. Many will be flying in on their private jets, thereby contributing to the climate crisis.

Also at that time, at a separate press conference the International Monetary Fund will present its World Economic Outlook. IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva will kick off the presentation, while IMF chief economist Gita Copinath will summarise the updated forecast.

The pound is falling after comments from the UK chancellor, Sajid Javid, over the weekend stoked fears of a hard Brexit. He told the Financial Times on Saturday that Britain would not commit to sticking to EU rules in post-Brexit trade talks.

There will not be alignment, we will not be a rule taker, we will not be in the single market and we will not be in the customs union – and we will do this by the end of the year.

Sterling lost 0.24% against the dollar to $1.2978, and was down 0.21% against the euro at €1.1703.

Back in the UK, pressure on households appears to have eased somewhat, with the household finance index from IHS Markit hitting a one-year high in January. It measures households’ perceptions of financial wellbeing and rose to 44.6 from 43.2 in December, suggesting a post-election bounce.

However, the index measuring future financial wellbeing dipped back into negative territory follow a slight improvement in December. Almost one in four households think that the Bank of England’s next move will be a rate cut.

The index is based on survey data collected by Ipsos Mori and is the first consumer survey published each month.

Joe Hayes, economist at IHS Markit, said:

Latest survey data certainly show some post-election bounce for UK households, with the headline index up to a one-year high and house price expectations at their strongest since October 2018. That said, cooling inflation was most likely the real driving force, propping up real earnings and disposable incomes.

“While falling living cost pressures are stimulating purchasing power, UK households are aware that weak economic conditions have led to an increased likelihood of lower interest rates. How this will impact consumer spending behaviour will be crucial to the UK’s growth prospects.”

And here is a list of the political leaders and leaders from international organisations, trade unions, charities and NGOs, who are attending Davos. There will be “10 leaders under the age of 20” including the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, who might square up to US president Donald Trump who is also flying in.

Running alongside the daytime discussions, schmoozing and night-time partying, there is an arts and culture festival for the first time with a number of sessions and “immersive art installations”. Cultural leaders attending Davos include the cellist Yo-Yo Ma and Cambridge university professor Mary Beard.

Trying to combat its reputation as an elitist gathering, the World Economic Forum has published a number of blogs ahead of the official opening at 4.30pm GMT today. This year’s theme is how do we “create a more cohesive and sustainable world”.

Blogs include a discussion of whether, as businesses are thriving while societies aren’t, this is the end of an era for shareholder capitalism; “financing fossil fuels risks a repeat of the 2008 crash;” and “The route to true gender equality? Fix the system, not women”.

Trading volumes are thin as US markets will be closed for Martin Luther King Day.

In London, the shopping centre firm Intu, which owns the Trafford centre in Manchester and Lakeside in Essex, suffered a 7% fall in its share price after confirming that it was in talks with investors about a fund raising by the end of February to shore up its battered finances. It is thought to be looking to raise as much as £1bn, although the company’s market value is only £288m. Intu has been hit as a number of well-known retailers have gone under or negotiated rent reductions in a bid to stay alive.

Tonic maker Fever-Tree, the former stock market darling, has seen its shares slump 21% today, the lowest level since April 2017. It admitted that trading had been tough in the UK over Christmas and blamed general belt-tightening among consumers, although it remains the market leader with its premium drinks mixers. The company now expects 2019 profits to be 5% below 2018, when it enjoyed a 34% jump in pre-tax profits to £75.6m.

Annual revenues are now set to come in at £260.5m, lower than expected. This equates to a 10% year-on-year growth rate, well below the 40% surge in sales seen in 2018. Fever-Tree already cut its sales outlook in November. Tim Warrillow, the chief executive and co-founder, said then that the company would hold off heavy promotional discounting over the Christmas period.

Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, says:

Falling sales in the UK will inevitably spark fears the gin boom has turned to bust, while guidance for weaker sales in the US and lower margins undermine Fevertree’s long term pitch that it can replicate its success across the pond.

And the world’s 22 richest men are wealthier than all the women in Africa combined, says Oxfam.

The world’s 2,153 billionaires have more wealth than the 4.6 billion people who make up 60% of the planet’s population, according to the latest inequality report from the charity Oxfam.

The climate crisis will loom large over Davos, and Mark Carney, who becomes the new UN special envoy for climate change and finance once his term as governor of the Bank of England ends in mid-March, will be attending. He will also be the UK’s key adviser for the next UN climate change conference in Glasgow in November (COP26). The other thing on people’s minds are trade disputes.

Philip Shaw, chief economist at Investec, says:

Those surveyed in the WEF’s Global Risks Report 2020 identified economic disputes, including trade tensions, as the number one risk to the global economy this year. Alongside this, “domestic political polarisation” and “extreme heat waves” were flagged as top threats.

We also expect world leaders to debate the 2020 events which have already unfolded and the repercussions of these, not least the US-Iranian conflict. Note that the WEF will get underway hot on the heels of the release of IMF’s World Economic Outlook update, providing the macroeconomic context for the discussions.

Larry Eliott, the Guardian’s economics editor, has looked back at the last few decades since the annual talkfest in the snow started. The World Economic Forum is “committed to improving the state of the world” but in key respects things look worse today than they did in the early 70s.