Morning business round-up: IMF arrest hits euro talks

What made the business news in Asia and Europe this morning? Here's our daily business round-up:

A meeting of finance ministers from the 17 nations that use the euro has been overshadowed by the arrest and charging of IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

He denies charges of a serious sexual assault on a hotel maid.

The meeting of eurozone financial leaders is set to approve a 78bn euro (£68bn; $110bn) bail-out for Portugal, and is also expected to discuss additional help for Greece's debt-hit economy.

In the UK, retailers could be facing many years of poor sales growth, an economic think tank has said.

Consumer spending is expected to rise by only 2% a year in the 10 years up to 2020, according to Ernst & Young's Item Club.

Meanwhile, the London Stock Exchange has said it "remains committed" to its merger with Toronto Stock Exchange owner TMX, despite news of a counter offer.

On Saturday, a $3.7bn rival bid for TMX was unveiled by a group of Canadian banks and pension funds.

LSE's share price rose 3.5% in early trading in London on Monday.

In Asia, the mood of consumers in Japan deteriorated further in April, a survey has found, as the fallout from the devastating earthquake and tsunami continued to weigh on sentiment.

The consumer confidence index fell to 33.1, down from 38.6 in March, according to the Cabinet Office. A reading below 50 suggests consumer pessimism.

India's inflation rate fell in April, to 8.66%, but was still higher than expected as fuel and food prices remained high.

The Reserve Bank of India has raised interest rates nine times since March 2010 and economists expect it to do so again in June.

To hear about some of the wider trends in the world of business, click through to our Business Daily podcast which today looks at the level of water used in the production of meat.