Debt crisis: as it happened 20.41 Eurozone leaders should abandon plans to include private investors in paring Greece's huge debts in order to restore trust in the currency bloc, a senior member of the ECB's governing council wrote in the Financial Times. Athanasios Orphanides said dropping plans to force losses on private sector holders of Greek debt would "help restore trust" in the eurozone and lower the borrowing costs of other governments in the currency union: Reversing the Greek private sector involvement decision would also raise the financing costs on the Greek government, but by restoring trust in the euro zone it would reduce the financing costs of other euro zone governments. 19.46 US Treasury prices are falling as encouraging news about the economy draws cash into riskier investments. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.99pc in the last hour, from 1.95pc in the morning in New York. 19.28 The Hungarian minister handling stalled bail-out talks with the IMF has said he wants a deal "as soon as possible," as Hungary's currency touches a new record low and borrowing costs soar. Tamas Fellegi said: It is the firm intention of the government to reach a deal with the IMF as soon as possible. The government is aware of the gravity of the situation and of what is at stake in talks with the IMF. 19.01 Earlier on today (13.58) we asked 'where's Mario?' The Italian PM had left Rome for a trip to Brussells, although no one was sure why. Well, now we know. Monti - who still has a flat in the Belgian capital from his time as a European commissioner - went to visit Italy's ambassador to the EU. Speculation about potential talks with EU officials on how to stop Italy from being engulfed in Europe's worsening debt crisis turned out to be nothing but rumour. He will now head to Paris for a meeting with Nicolas Sarkozy tomorrow, ahead of a visit to see Angela Merkel next week and David Cameron the week after. 18.41 A quick update on the US markets, which have recovered during afternoon trading in New York, thanks to positive jobs data. The Dow Jones is off by a neglible 0.01pc, the S&P 500 has risen 0.33pc and the Nasdaq is up 0.81pc. 18.03 We mentioned earlier on (13.17) that the IMF was carrying out stress tests on Japanese banks. We now have more information. The IMF says it's measuring their vulnerability to systemic shocks as part of a broader review of the Japanese financial sector, aimed at assessing stability. But the tests also come after the IMF noted a possible weakness in the banks through their huge holdings of Japanese government bonds. 17.26 Fears over Europe's shaky banking sector is continuing to push the euro down. At $1.279, it's now getting close to a 16-month low. 17.04 Time for the customary end-of-day markets chart... 16.40 The European markets have now closed for the day, having been led down by Italy and Spain on fresh concerns the two countries face increasing difficulties in the eurozone debt crisis. The FTSE 100 ended 0.78pc off, the DAX slipped 0.25pc and the CAC lost 1.53pc. Worst affected was the FTSE MIB, which tumbled 3.65pc. Angus Campbell, Head of Sales at Capital Spreads, said: The New Year party has come to an end as the same old concerns continued to riddle the markets with fears that it's not just Europe's sovereigns that are in bad shape, but it's the banks as well, which could cause the existing European recession to be longer and deeper than is currently feared. On top of this a French bond auction saw the eurozone's second biggest economy have to pay more interest fuelling fears that a credit rating downgrade will come sooner or later. 15.59 Swiss National Bank chief Philipp Hildebrand has just given a press conference where he said he won't resign over a controversial dollar currency deal, which was made just before steps were taken to weaken the Swiss currency, but concedes that improvements need to be made to the transparency of personal transactions. 15.34 Nick Clegg isn't the only one calling for a campaign to tackle tax evasion - Spain's new conservative government has also promised it will crack down on evaders. Personal and corporate tax returns will be scrutinized more closely, tax inspectors will visit workplaces more often to ensure workers are being paid through the payroll, and the government is considering setting a limit beyond which transactions cannot be carried out in cash, government spokeswoman Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said after a Cabinet meeting today. She said the government hopes to raise nearly €8.2 billion in 2012 in extra revenue with the anti-tax fraud initiative. 14.44 Italy's MIB down 4pc. 14.41 US stocks have opened lower, with a dimming picture for the eurozone economy overshadowing data showing a promising jump in US private-sector hiring in December. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 61.30 points (0.49pc) at 12,357.12; the broader S&P 500 has fallen 6.00 (0.47pc) to 1,271.30; and the tech-dominated Nasdaq Composite lost 4.66 (0.18pc) to 2,643.70. 14.39 What are you up to, Monti? 14.26 Spain aims to recoup €8.17bn in 2012 by fighting tax fraud, the new right-leaning government has announced. The government is drawing up an anti tax fraud scheme to include boosting the number of inspectors and limiting the size of cash payments, Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said after a cabinet meeting. Takes money to make money, I guess... Euro slumps to new 16-month low under $1.28. FTSE MIB now down 3.7pc. 14.10 Bit of corporate news. Shell has become the last FTSE 100 company to close its final-salary pension scheme to new staff. End of an era. 13.58 Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti has left Rome for a trip to Brussels... although no one is sure why. 13.45 The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) has placed a €3bn three-year benchmark bond maturing on February 4, 2015. The proceeds will be used in conjunction with the financial assistance programmes for Republic of Ireland and Portugal. The issuance spread at reoffer was fixed at mid swap plus 40 basis points. This implies a reoffer yield for investors of 1.770pc. This first three-year bond placed by the EFSF was met with strong demand with orders received close to €4.5bn from investors around the world. 13.43 And in the eurozone things go from bad to worse. The EU/IMF aid schedule for Greece has been pushed back three months. 13.36 Occupy London (remember them?!) has been calling for the City of London Corporation to make its accounts public, with some success, although until now it had failed to do the same itself. But from today the protest group has agreed to publish a list of all spending and donations online. And it has also revealed a bit about how its finances are controlled. An Occupy London Finance Group has been set up to deal with the money side of things, which in the early days of the camp this group was hit with "urgent requests for money" for various things that "exceeded the limit the finance working group was empowered to hand out without direct General Assembly approval," prompting a spending freeze while things were sorted out. Formal procedures have now been put in place whereby protesters have to make a case for all their spending and put it to a vote. So just how much money does Occupy London have? £14,547.98. And in the past week they've recieved £90 in donations online and £2,180 in cash. Capitalism at its best... 13.30 US initial joblesss claims fell to 372,000 in the final week of December, down from 387,000. Continuing claims fell to 3.595m, down from 3.617m. US private sector employment rose by 325,000 in December, far stronger than the 180,000 expected. 13.20 Italian stock market down 3.5pc now. Really been spooked by rising bond yields and bank share suspensions. 13.16 We are now hearing reports that the IMF is conducting stress tests on Japanese banks. Contagion? 13.09 Following on from those comments by Nick Clegg earlier about bank bonuses, the European Union's banking watchdog has said that agreeing binding rules to curb excessive bank pay will be a top priority over the next two years. It said: The crisis has shown the adverse personal incentives could lead to risk-prone behaviour. 12.57 We are hearing reports that a new version of the EU fiscal compact gives greater powers to the European Commission, including the ability to take countries to court. 12.37 The Telegraph's Richard Tyler is still with David Cameron as he meets small businesses in the Home Counties: 12.35 Panic over! Klaus Regling, chief excecutive of the European Financial Stability Facility (the EU's bail-out fund), says he is very confident in the euro's future. Phew! 12.14 Markets update: 11.59 The EC has said that if the independence of the Hungarian central bank is questioned then it is "a problem for the whole EU." Hungary's CDS hit 748 basis points, a record wide. Country is paying nearly 10pc on one-year bills. 11.45 David Cameron is out and about today meeting small businesses: I'm sure there's a joke in there somewhere... 11.44 Not a good day for Italy. After having multiple bank shares suspended and bond yields passing 7pc, the MIB is now down 3.3pc, that's more than 500 points. Italian government reportedly sticks to its forecast of a 4pc fall in GDP this year. 11.35 Robert Miller's Business Bullet brings you the main City news as inter-broker dealer Tullet Prebon makes £10m cost-cutting provision; Swiss National Bank boss under fire over wife's foreign exchange deal; infrastructure group Costain boost forward order book to £2.5bn and Clinton Cards revereses sales decline in Christmas run-up. 11.08 David Cameron was in Maidenhead earlier today talking to small and medium-sized businesses. He warned that this year will be "difficult": ... and even earlier this morning, deputy PM Nick Clegg said "no one planned" for the UK's EU isolation over Cameron's veto last month. 10.58 The Telegraph's Jeremy Warner has tweeted on the UK economy: But while one sector of the economy is doing better, the housing market is still struggling - the number of mortgages approved by banks is dropping fast: 10.56 Hungary very much in the spotlight as traders fear a debt default. Today the country has sold 35bn-worth of forints, less than planned 45bn forints. Average yield jumps to 9.96pc. The minister in charge of talks with the IMF says his nation wants a deal with the International Monetary Fund "as soon as possible." 10.46 Billionaire investor George Soros said a fracturing of the euro area would have "catastrophic" consequences and that markets have started pricing in the possibility of the region breaking up. The disintegration of the 17-nation currency bloc would affect Europe and the "entire global financial system," he added. Markets are "far from equilibrium and extremely difficult to predict using the yardsticks or methods that were used in the past," Soros said, adding investors "have to play it safe" and that "unless you can anticipate events correctly, it's better to do nothing than to keep on losing money." 10.38 Italian stock market down 2.7pc at the moment on debt fears, bank share suspensions and high bond yields. 10.26 Some reaction to France's semi-successful €8bn bond auction. Michael Leister, a strategist at DZ Bank, said: Overall it's a pretty solid auction. When you look at things like bid cover and particularly the price action going into the auction, where quite a concession was built in, it's nothing to get excited about. But, at the same time it should be enough to dispel concerns with regards to France's funding capacity for the time being. 10.16 Markit claims UK economy saw no growth in Q4 after its latest services sector PMI showed activity at its highest level since July. 10.13 CAC down 1pc after that French bond auction. FTSE 100 not far behind with a fall of 0.6pc. Euro falls to $1.2832 - a 15-month low, but sterling rises to its highest in nearly 16 months versus the euro. The pound climbed 0.4pc to 82.58p per euro. 10.09 Eurozone industrial orders have risen 1.1pc year-on-year. Very disappointing as experts had predicted a 3.3pc rise. 10.07 France sells 2041 bonds at average yield of 3.97pc versus 3.94pc in December. Sells 2021 bonds at an average yield of 2.29pc against 3.18pc in December. But id-to-cover drops significantly to its lowest since October 2010. 09.48 Bank of England says default rates for big and medium-sized firms reported to have risen for first time in two years. 09.45 The Bank of England has been updating on the UK economy. It has said that UK banks have warned that the euro crisis and funding costs may hit credit availability. However, the central bank expects credit availability to increase a little in Q1, but demand will fall. Demand fell sharply in Q4. I wonder what David Cameron makes of this? Earlier he told small businesses in Maidenhead that Government is pushing banks to lend more. But if the demand isn't there... 09.36 David Cameron: "Government is not a good customer for small business. But we will do everything possible to help them. He suggests small businesses are innovators who could help Government reduce costs. Also tackles question on controversial solar panel subsidies. The Telegraph's Richard Tyler is there: 09.31 UK Services PMI at 54 in December, up from 52.1 in November (anything over 50 signifies growth). Fastest rise in activity and new businesses for five months. But expectations fall back to September's two-and-a-half-year low. Neville Hill at Credit Suisse: I guess the PMI services is encouraging alongside the manufacturing and construction numbers we've had also this week. It does suggest that, after what looks as if it could be a pretty poor fourth quarter of 2011, as if the economy has regained a bit of momentum going into 2012. And that probably means that even if the fourth quarter growth numbers are negative the UK could successfully skirt recession rather than go through another double dip. So it looks as if the UK is going to get out of recession by the skin of its teeth to some extent and growth potential will be stronger in the first quarter of next year. Rare good news for UK! 09.28 EU summit of March 1-2 will discuss the size of rescue fund financing, says French PM Francois Fillon. He adds that he is determined to implement the financial transaction tax. Italian 10-year bond yields have hit 7.02pc. Anything above 7pc is widely considered to make borrowing costs unnaffordable. 09.06 The Telegraph's Enterprise Editor Richard Tyler is tweeting from Maidenhead, where the PM is meeting small and medium-sized enterprises: 09.01 Ahead of a key French bond auction later today, here is a graph comparing the UK, French and German economies: France has been under pressure since mid December when its AAA status was put under review and saw spreads against the benchmark German Bund widen considerably, putting further pressure on France's ability to service its debt 08.57 Big problems for Italy's largest lender Unicredit. THe bank's shares have been suspended for a second consecutive day after falling 7.9pc. They were halted yesterday after falling around 10pc. It's recent problems stem from the launch of a deeply-discounted €7.5bn (£6.2bn) cash call. Meanwhile, Italy's unemployment rate for November has climbed to 8.6pc. Young adult jobless rate climbs above 30pc for first time. 08.49 Euro hits year-low of 128.87. Sebastien Galy at Societe Generale said: It hasn't taken much for the euro-bears to get the upper hand again. Financial problems in Spain's regions are the latest catalyst but investors remain unconvinced by the latest proposals to move forward to a credible financial structure for the Euro zone. Europe suffers a balance of payments crisis despite not having a current account deficit. 08.47 Markets have turned negative on eurozone debt fears, and investors are getting nervous over today's key French bond auction. 08.31 The Sunday Telegraph's Business Editor Kamal Ahmed: Yields on 10-year Spanish government paper have risen by 15 basis points to 5.4pc, widening their spread above German bonds to 350 basis points. 08.19 Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has told Radio 4 that there is a need to be as tough as last year on bank bonuses: It's the Liberal Democrats who have led the debate on clamping down on bankers' bonuses and we must be just as tough this year in the bonus season that's coming up as we were last year, if not more so. He also said he was presented with a fait accomplit regarding David Cameron's EU summit veto. "I was told the outcome was as it was," he said. He added that "no one planned for an outcome" in which the UK was in a minority of one. Clegg also said that he "doesn't want to get into the twists and turns of what happened in the dead of night," regarding the veto. He also hoped there would be new "anti-abuse rule" on tax avoidance. 08.09 More from Nouriel Roubini: 08.05 One of the top stories in our Finance section today is Louise Armitstead's article on Hungary cancelling a bond swap auction. The Budapest government saw borrowing costs soar and the currency plunge as traders bet that international authorities may abandon Hungary, letting it become the first European Union country to default on its debts. The florint fell more than 1pc to a record low against the euro and bond yields soared over 10pc. Hungary's forint has hit a new record against the euro for the third consecutive day: 321.6 (+1.3pc) 08.03 European markets are open. The FTSE 100 has opened up 0.2pc, the CAC is up 0.1pc, the DAX is up 0.2pc, the IBEX is up 0.1pc and Italy's MIB is flat. 07.59 Top economist Nouriel Roubini is tweeting: 07.51 Telegraph City Editor Richard Fletcher is on Twitter rounding up the big news to come today: France to raise up to €8bn in sovereign debt auction; JJB and CLinton Cards put on a brave face; cost-cutting at Tullett Prebon; FTSE 100 forecast to open up 13 points. Sign up for his daily email on his webpage. 07.46 A really interesting graph showing how the cost of protecting against default is generally lower in democratic countries: 07.28 First dribbles of economic data emerging. Irish services PMI falls to 48.4 in December, down from 52.7 in November. That's a contraction of the sector and the lowest level since December 2010. Economist Nouriel Roubini believes Ireland is double-dipping. German retail sales fell 0.9pc in November month-on-month against an expected 0.2pc gain. The previous month's figures were revised down from 0.7pc to -0.2pc. 07.28 Which country will grow the fastest in 2012? According to The Economist, it's Libya. They claim the nation will be boosted by reconstruction following the fall of Muammar Gaddafi's regime. Japan's Nikkei slipped from Wednesday's three-week high to trade down 0.8pc 06.45 The big news still affecting the financial world is Greece warning that it could run out of money in March if unions don't agree to cuts.