France may unveil a new austerity plan to shore up its public finances as early as next week, a member of the National Assembly's finance commission said Thursday, only two months after the country took emergency measures worth €12 billion to hold on to its prized triple-A rating, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Consumer confidence has fallen to its lowest level since February 2009, adding to evidence that the economy is returning to recession, a survey by GfK NOP showed on Friday, Reuters reported. GfK said its consumer confidence index sank to -32 in October from -30 in September, a level last seen when the economy was in the depths of recession. A year ago, the index stood at -19. "Consumers' outlook is becoming increasingly pessimistic about the UK's general economic situation over the coming year," said GfK managing director Nick Moon.

Swedish car maker Saab Automobile AB said Thursday it cannot formally respond to the administrator of its reorganization's request to end the company's restructuring process, as it is in "intense negotiations" with investors to secure financing, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. "The end results of these negotiations, which could be ready at basically any time, are crucial to Saab's position" in the matter, Saab's general counsel, Kristina Geers, said in an email sent to the district court in Vanersborg.

China is very likely to contribute to the eurozone’s bail-out fund but the scope of its involvement will depend on European leaders satisfying some key conditions, two senior advisers to the Chinese government have told the Financial Times. Any Chinese support would depend on contributions from other countries and Beijing must be given strong guarantees on the safety of its investment, according to Li Daokui, an academic member of China’s central bank monetary policy committee, and Yu Yongding, a former member of that committee.

Top European Central Bank officials offered a skeptical appraisal of Europe's latest plan to solve its debt crisis, suggesting that the central bank may be forced to maintain the emergency measures it has adopted to keep the problems from spreading, The Wall Street Journal reported.

European leaders announced Wednesday they had agreed on plans to shore up the region’s banking system, seeking to contain a spreading debt crisis and prevent a new recession, The Washington Post reported. The 27-member European Union said banks would be asked to raise perhaps $150 billion in new capital as a buffer against possible losses on their holdings of European government bonds that have declined in value. The agreement represented the most tangible progress made by European leaders after days of crisis negotiations.

Euro zone leaders intend to scale up their emergency rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, to give it an estimated firepower of about 1 trillion euros ($1.38 trillion), EU sources said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The sources said the 440 billion euro EFSF fund would have between 250 and 275 billion euros available after providing aid to Greece, Ireland and Portugal, and that the money could be quadrupled using a special vehicle and a debt-insurance scheme.

As the continent's policy makers continue to grapple with the unfolding crisis that began with debt problems in Greece, investors' focus has turned to Italy, the euro-zone's third largest economy, and a nation saddled with one of its heaviest debt burdens, The Wall Street Journal reported. Worries that the government won't be able to keep up payments on its debt have driven up the yields on Italy's sovereign bonds, which is pressuring the Italian banks that own them. The world's oldest bank, Siena-based Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, is now caught in the storm.

European leaders were frustrated Tuesday in their efforts to craft a response to the continent’s debt crisis one day before a self-imposed deadline, while a political stalemate in Italy over austerity measures further diminished hopes for a quick resolution, The Washington Post reported. As top European officials prepared to return to Brussels on Wednesday for their second summit this week on the crisis, they sent conflicting signals about how much progress they had made on key elements of a rescue plan.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel could face another showdown with euro rebels in her coalition when parliament votes Wednesday on plans to boost the firepower of the euro-zone bailout fund, potentially weakening the chancellor in already difficult negotiations with European Union leaders at a summit planned for Wednesday evening, The Wall Street Journal reported. As European officials rushed to thrash out the details of a comprehensive response to the euro zone debt crisis by Wednesday, opponents of any further euro-zone bailouts within Ms.