Newspaper journalist Kamal Ahmed has been announced as the BBC's new business editor, taking over from Robert Peston.

Ahmed, who has worked at The Guardian and The Observer and is currently business editor at the Sunday Telegraph, will start in March.

It was announced earlier this year that Mr Peston was becoming the corporation's economics editor, replacing Stephanie Flanders who left broadcasting for a job at JP Morgan Asset Management.

Mr Ahmed said: "I am absolutely delighted to be joining the BBC. It is a great privilege to follow in the footsteps of Robert Peston and build on the great work the BBC does covering the business world."

The director of BBC News James Harding said Ahmed would "bring intelligence, flair and incisive judgment to the BBC's coverage of business".

The corporation has also appointed Carrie Gracie as its first China editor, which Mr Harding said signalled the BBC's "determination to bring home to people the sweeping changes in the world's most populous nation as well as the transformative impact that China is having upon the world and all of our lives".

Ms Gracie, who speaks fluent Mandarin and will be based in Beijing, starts work in spring and first worked for the BBC when she joined the World Service as a trainee in 1987.