Debt crisis: UK services sector slows to 22-month low 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.