08.33 Catalonia, one of Spain's largest regions has reportedly asked the country to speed up emergency cash payments from an €18bn (£14.17bn) fund to help stuggling regions pay their bills.
Artur Mas, the region's president, has urged the government to implement the fund as soon as possible to "help" communities with cash flow problems, according to Spanish daily Cinco Dias.
The paper said that Catalonia is already behind on payments, and needs €2.5bn from the fund to redeem bonds. Mr Mas added that Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy must resist the "temptation" of using the fund to take "political control" of Catalonia. He said:
Catalonia is already behind on its payments, according to Cinco Dias (Photo: Getty).
08.15 Over in Asia, Chinese exports slumped in July, as demand faltered from its two biggest customers - America and the EU.
Exports grew by an annual rate of 1pc in July, the weakest since January, as shipments to the EU fell by almost 16pc.
This compares to growth of 11.3pc in June, and falls well short of economists' predictions for growth of 8pc. As the chart below highlights, China isn't the only Asian economy that has been suffering:
Wider slowdown: Earlier this month, Korea reported an 8.8pc contraction in July exports and Taiwan’s exports slumped by 11.6pc during the same period (Source: Societe Generale, Bloomberg).
08.10 Finland's PM Jyrki Katainen has said that further co-operation between eurozone leaders and the European Central Bank (ECB) is needed to fight the debt crisis. He told Finland's national public service broadcaster:
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08.07 Another big development in the eurozone crisis yesterday came late in the day, when the French Constitutional Court ruled that the EU's budget responsibility pact didn't require a change to the constitution. That's important, because it allows Francois Hollande to push through the pact without requiring the support of the conservative opposition - something which could delay the move.
Critics of the plan in France say that it hands more power to the EU, but the court ruled that it will go no further than existing rules that impose deficit limits.
08.01 If you were reading the blog yesterday you would have seen that it was the fifth anniversary of the start of the financial crisis: BNP Paribas kicked things off on 9 August 2007 when it said investors would not be able to take money out of two of its funds because it couldn't value the assets in them due to a "complete evaporation of liquidity". We put together a slideshow charting the key events of the last five years.
We also compiled some of Ambrose Evans-Pritchard's most prescient articles from the last half-decade.
08.00 Good morning and welcome back to our live coverage of the European debt crisis.
