London

THE global economy ended 2014 in a fragile state as factories struggled to maintain growth across Europe and Asia, business surveys showed, adding to pressure on central banks to implement more stimulus.

Ebbing price pressures across the continents offer room for the People's Bank of China and the European Central Bank (ECB) to do more to drive up inflation and support growth. "Growth really does appear to be stalling based on these indicators so certainly the pressure is on, although we are less worried about China," said James Knightley, senior global economist at ING.