13.46 Back over to Greece where the protests have started. This time journalists are marching during a demonstration as part of a 24-hour print, broadcast and electronic media blackout.
Photo: LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP/Getty Images
13.35 Over in France, industrialist Louis Gallois has said Francois Hollande needs to implement ?pretty severe? measures to revive the French economy in the face of international competition.
Mr Gallois, former Airbus SAS executive, today handed in a report to the government, which the Socialist government had commissioned, in which he called for a patriotic effort to support shock therapy to reverse declining competitiveness on Monday as he handed in a review the Socialist government commissioned but is unlikely to heed.
Gallois said the 22 recommendations set out in a review to be detailed to media later in the day were tough but necessary.
The report prescribes slashing ?30bn off payroll taxes and loosening labour laws to reverse a long decline in industrial competitiveness that has eaten away at exports and bled factory jobs.
"The French people need to support this collective effort which could be a magnificent project for our country - winning back our industry," he told reporters as he left the prime minister's office, Reuters reports. "This will require real patriotism."
12.55 Markets have continued the day as they started, heading down.
12.35 Heading back to the UK, the Telegraph's economics editor Philip Aldrick has reported that the weak services data that was out this morning (see 09.35) has raised the risk of a triple-dip recession.
Output among services companies, which account for around three-quarters of UK GDP, fell much more sharply in October than expected and followed similar disappointments in the manufacturing and construction indices, according to the closely-watched Purchasing Managers Index (PMI).
Nida Ali, UK economist at the Ernst & Young ITEM Club, said the data suggested ?growth in the fourth quarter will be negligible at best?.
Analysts said the poor PMI data had undone some of the boost to confidence delivered by the strong 1pc growth recorded for the three months to September, and increased the chances of the Bank of England relaunching quantitative easing this week.
12.22 As Greece battles to stay in the euro, Romania is struggling to join it. The country's prime minister Victor Ponta has said his country will miss a 2015 target for joining the eurozone, but remained committed to adopting Europe's single currency once the conditions were appropriate, AFP reports.
"The 2015 deadline for entering the eurozone is not cast in stone," Ponta told reporters.
To join the eurozone, a country must meet five criteria, including a public deficit of less than 3.0 percent of the nation's output and a low inflation rate.
Ponta's remarks came after Romanian central bank governor Mugur Isarescu told the New York Times that the goal of adopting the euro in 2015 was now "out of the question".
In May 2009, Romania obtained a rescue package worth ?20bn from the IMF, the EU and the World Bank in exchange for drastic spending cuts.
In March 2011, the IMF and the EU agreed to provide a fresh credit line of ?5.0bn, to be drawn down only in case of emergency.
A team of IMF and EU auditors is expected in Romania on Tuesday to discuss the country's economic progress, a month ahead general elections.
12.10 In Athens they have also put police fences around the Greek parliament to protect it from the protests.
Photo: AP/Thanassis Stavrakis
12.00 Sticking with Greece and those proposed strikes.
Here are some posters with the title ''All together we'll win'' announcing the 48-hour nationwide general strike of Tuesday and Wednesday, in central Athens.
Greece is facing three days of escalating anti-austerity strikes, with state hospital doctors, taxi drivers, transport workers and journalists walking off the job.
Photo: AP/Thanassis Stavrakis
11.35 A quick look at Greece. Prime minister Antonis Samaras will present the government's new austerity budget to parliament later today, which will include a package of ?13.5bn (?10.8bn) in cost cuts and tax hikes along with measures making it easier for firms to hire and fire workers.
Parliament will vote on the budget on Wednesday and it is expectd to just scrape through.
The country is facing a week of strikes and protests over proposals which must win lawmakers' approval if the country is to secure more aid and stave off bankruptcy.
Greece's powerful main public and private sector unions will launch a 48 hour strike against the legislation on Tuesday and plan marches in Athens' city centre. Journalists, doctors, transport workers and shopkeepers are also planning stoppages.
Approval of the reforms and the passage of the 2013 budget are crucial to unlocking ?31.5 bn in aid from an International Monetary Fund and European Union bailout that has been on hold since the summer.
"These will be the last cuts in wages and pensions," Samaras said in a speech aimed at galvanizing the members of his centre-right New Democracy party, Reuters reported.
"We promised to avert the country's exit from the euro and this is what we are doing. We have given absolute priority to this because if we do not achieve this everything else will be meaningless."
11.08 A slightly different look at that Turkey upgrade from a global macro strategist.
11.01 Over to Turkey, which has been looking to join the EU for the past few years. Fitch has become the first international credit rating agency to upgrade the country to investment grade.
Fitch expects the economy to remain more volatile than investment grade peers, but believes sovereign creditworthiness has become more resilient to shocks. At some point, an external financing shock and a recession are likely. However, the agency believes the country's strong sovereign, bank and household balance sheets, and economic and exchange rate flexibility provide important buffers against shocks spreading into a wider financial crisis.
The ratings changes are:
Fitch Ratings has upgraded the Republic of Turkey?s Long-term foreign currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ?BBB-? from ?BB+? and the Long-term local currency IDR to ?BBB? from ?BB +?. The Outlooks on the Long-term ratings are Stable. The agency has also upgraded Turkey?s Short-term foreign currency IDR to ?F3? from ?B? and the Country Ceiling to ?BBB? from ?BBB-?.
10.49 Staying in the eurozone, Italy's economy is forecast to shrink by 2.3pc this year and by 0.5pc next year, according to the country's statistics office Istat, as the eurozone's third largest economy continues to muddle through in a recession.
Istat, which revised down an earlier forecast, was more pessimistic about the state of Italy's economy next year than the government, which in September forecast that business activity would contract by 0.2pc in 2013.
Thousands of students march against against austerity measures in Turin, Italy.
10.35 Back to the eurozone now and according to a research group sentiment in the 17-nation bloc improved for a third consecutive month, following the news that the European Central Bank will buy unlimited amounts of debt to reduce countries' borrowing costs.
Sentix research group said its index tracking investor sentiment in the eurozone rose to -18.8 from October's -22.2 and also outperformed a Reuters poll consensus for -20.0.
Sentix said the absence of fresh negative news in the eurozone crisis may have boosted investors' confidence.
10.19 More reaction coming in to those PMI figures, which are being described as "disappointing", "disturbing" and "concerning".
Ross Walker, RBS
Disappointing. A great deal wasn't expected this month, but it has come in a bit weaker than most people thought and just as the BoE seems to be signalling the end of QE.
We had this deterioration in some of the surveys, I think none of these surveys - the construction, manufacturing or services indices were particularly good at capturing some of the volatility earlier in the year, so it's more about what is trend rather than what is the latest monthly print.
Even on that basis, you've seen since the summer pretty lacklustre numbers, it's a little bit concerning.
It looks like the fourth quarter is going to be pretty anaemic.
David Tinsley, BNP Paribas
It's clearly a very weak and disturbing trend. We take some solace from the fact it's above 50 and that suggests the economy is still edging forward but I think it does highlight the fact the somewhat over-exuberant excitement around the Q3 GDP print is going to dissipate fairly quickly.
We don't think they [the MPC] will extend quantitative easing asset purchases this Thursday but it's a marginal decision for them.
It rams home to them [the MPC] really that the underlying pace of the economy is weak at best and probably almost at stall speed.
The outlook over the course of Q4 this year is going to be quite weak. The outlook thereafter is for some modest improvement as there's been easing in this country and elsewhere.
Some sources of uncertainty at the global level are probably going to find some resolution, so we can probably support the Bank of England's view that the recovery will slowly build over the next year, but it's certainly going to continue to be pretty bumpy.
George Buckley, Deutsche Bank
What it does tell us is that while there have been some mixed messages, more positive than negative, we're not seeing a very fast recovery at all.
IIs the recovery weak because of underlying weaknesses? This is a really important question the Bank's got to ask.
09.55 A bit of reaction to those PMI figures out of the UK from Andrew Harker, economist at survey compilers Markit, said the latest report was a ?warning? to those who saw the strong, 1pc growth in GDP during the third quarter as symbolising the start of a strong and speedy economic recovery.
With activity rising at the weakest pace in close to two years, the broadly stagnant trend seen in official data over the year to date looks to have continued at the start of the fourth quarter.
Although there are signs of improvements, panellists still referred to the fragility of both demand and confidence among clients. Competitive pressures were also highlighted, both by respondents and by the slight nature of output price inflation.
The expectation among firms is for activity to improve over the coming year, but the road to full economic recovery still looks to be a long one.
09.35 The PMI figures out of the UK are not so good though. The PMI figures show that, while the services activity did grow in October, it was at the weakest pace in the current 22-month period of rising growth.
The headline seasonally adjusted Business Activity Index posted 50.6 in October. Although this reading still signalled an expansion in services activity during the month, it was below the mark of 52.2 in September.
Growth of new business eased during the month, leading companies to deplete backlogs of work, while staffing levels were reduced for the second month running.
09.26 There is a bit of PMI data out today, starting with Ireland. The country's services sector has seen the strongest rise in activity in five years (since October 2007), as new business increases sharply.
The seasonally adjusted Business Activity Index ? which is based on a single question asking respondents to report on the actual change in business activity at their companies compared to one month ago ? increased to 56.1 in October, from 53.9 in September, and signalled the sharpest monthly increase in activity in five years during October.
Activity has now risen in three successive months, with the latest expansion mainly linked by panellists to higher new business.
09.18 Over to Spain now, where the number of jobless rose for the third consecutive month, up by 2.7pc in October from a month earlier, leaving 4.8m people out of work, according to data from the Labour Ministry.
People queue to enter an unemployment registry office in Madrid
09.10 The EU competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia has been speaking in Madrid where he said no-one will leave the euro, Bloomberg reports.
"We need to complete the tool kit of the economic and monetary union and for that it is necessary to share more sovereignty than we transferred when we created a single currency and a central bank," he said.
"Part of the risk premium is exclusively based in the fear that a country leaves the euro.
"We have to eliminate this risk immediately and the ECB has to do that. But not just the ECB.
"They need the member states to support and reaffirm the euro zone."
08.53 A look at European markets which have not had a good start to a week which will see the US elect a president and Greece facing a make-or-break parliamentary vote.
"You don't want to have too much risk ahead of the U.S. election tomorrow, so I think everyone is going to be very cautious until we see the first indications of who will win," SAID Tobias Blattner, an economist at Daiwa Securities.
08.44 Over to Cyprus, where the Island requested financial aid back in June and has been in talks with international lenders.
However, according to a report by Germany's intelligence agency (BND), the people that will benefit most from a bailout are on the island are Russian oligarchs and mafiosi.
According to weekly magazine Der Spiegel, which cites the report, Cyprus's request for a bailout has created a political headache for German Chancellor Angela Merkel on concerns wealthy Russians could be the chief beneficiaries.
The BND report on money laundering in Cyprus has laid bare the political risks involved, Spiegel said.
"The report of the BND shows who will profit most of all from the billions in European taxpayer funds - Russian oligarchs, businesspeople and mafiosi who have parked their illegal earnings in Cyprus," the magazine said.
Cyprus is a popular offshore tax haven for Russian businesses seeking protection from their country's unpredictable investment climate.
The BND report found that Russian nationals held some $26bn (?16.2bn) in Cypriot bank accounts, Spiegel said, dwarfing both the emergency aid the eurozone is likely to provide and the country's total national output of about ?17bn.
Cypriot authorities do not provide a breakdown of bank deposits based on nationality, but Russians are believed to make up a large proportion of non-domiciled accounts.
08.30 Sticking with Britain, the Bank of England is expected to vote against increasing the size of its quantitative easing programme on Thursday. Angela Monaghan reports:
The Bank?s Monetary Policy Committee is expected to leave quantitative easing unchanged at ?375bn and interest rates on hold at 0.5pc on Thursday after the economy bounced back with 1pc growth in the third quarter.
Economists were previously forecasting a further ?50bn injection of QE at the November policy meeting, but that view changed after the economy grew more strongly than expected between July and September, and the Bank?s deputy governor Charlie Bean questioned in a speech whether QE could boost growth in the current economic climate.
08.25 Starting in the UK, the Centre for Economics and Business Research said that Britain?s economy would fare better than its eurozone counterparts over the next couple of years.
Predicting that recession would continue in the eurozone in 2013, with only marginal growth in 2014, CEBR said Britain would grow by 0.8pc and 1.4pc respectively - faster than Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
?The economic situation in some parts of Europe is moving from bad to catastrophic. There is a danger that the economic problems will spill over into social breakdown in many areas of Europe as unemployment soars and governments run out of money,? said Douglas McWilliams, chief executive of CEBR.
08.20 Good morning and welcome to Debt Crisis Live.
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