Spanish financials cheer EU agreement

BRUSSELS — Eurozone factory output continued its steep fall in autumn this year, underscoring the feeble domestic demand that risks prolonging the bloc’s recession. Industrial production in the 17 countries sharing the euro fell 1.4% in October after falling sharply in September, the EU’s statistics office Eurostat said on Wednesday. That was much worse than the modest growth expected by economists in a Reuters poll.

(LONDON) — The 17-country eurozone has bowed to the inevitable and fallen back into recession for the first time in three years as a sprawling debt crisis took its toll on the region’s stronger economies. And with surveys pointing to increasingly depressed conditions across the eurozone at a time of high unemployment in many countries, there are fears that the recession will deepen, and make the debt crisis even more difficult to handle.

The eurozone sealed a grand deal to overcome its festering debt crisis Thursday when banks agreed to take a 50 percent loss on Greek debt, officials said.Eurozone officials announced the deal following tough talks in Brussels between leaders of the eurozone and the Institute of International Finance banking lobby to force the private sector to share the pain of Greece's debt burden.The agreement was the last and perhaps toughest chapter to negotiate in a wide-ranging four-point plan to find a lasting solution to Europe's festering debt crisis.

LONDON — Mention it quietly, but there were rare hopeful signs for Europe’s struggling economy on Friday. Three pieces of economic news for the 17 European Union countries that use the euro were all slightly better than hoped — in sharp contrast to some of the grim days the eurozone has witnessed over the last three years of its crisis over too much debt.

LONDON — Mention it quietly, but there were rare hopeful signs for Europe’s struggling economy on Friday. Three pieces of economic news for the 17 European Union countries that use the euro were all slightly better than hoped — in sharp contrast to some of the grim days the eurozone has witnessed over the last three years of its crisis over too much debt.

The ECB stepped into the fray once again today but the the results of the Spanish debt auction today speak for themselves. The rate on 10-year bonds is close to touching the 7% mark. The BBC reports on the "Dreadful Result" The Spanish government sold 3.56bn euros (£3.04bn; $4.79bn) worth of bonds out of a maximum target of 4bn euros. The auction attracted bids worth 1.5 times the securities offered. The so-called bid-to-cover ratio was down from 1.8 in October.