A look at economic developments and activity in major stock markets around the world Friday:
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BRUSSELS - Concerns about Spain's crippling financial problems flared again as even news that the country had been given the final go-ahead for a bank bailout loan of up to (euro) 100 billion ($122.9 billion) failed to take the sting out of a further round of bad economic news.
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MADRID - Spain's economic woes deepened after a heavily indebted region asked the central government for help to pay creditors, prompting investors to dump Spanish stocks and government bonds.
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MILAN - Italian Premier Mario Monti says the debt crisis has spread to Italy and that the country must try to avoid taking a bailout.
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LONDON - Concerns about Europe's debt crisis resurfaced, weighing heavily on the region's stock markets and pushing the euro to a two-year low.
Britain's FTSE 100 was down 1.09 percent while Germany's DAX lost 1.9 percent. France's CAC 40 shed 2.14 percent.
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TOKYO - In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.4 percent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.4 percent. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.1 percent and China's Shanghai Composite dropped 0.7 percent.
Markets in Singapore, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and New Zealand also fell.
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LONDON - U.K. public sector borrowing rose more than expected in June, to 14.4 billion pounds ($22.6 billion), according to official data released Friday that raise doubts over the government's ability to meet its deficit targets.
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PARIS - France's lower house of parliament has passed a revised 2012 government budget to raise about (euro) 7 billion ($8.6 billion) in new revenue by targeting corporations and the wealthy with new taxes.
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BEIJING - Total profit for China's biggest state-owned companies fell by 16.4 percent in the first half from a year earlier as an economic slowdown deepened, the government said.