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India's industrial output was flat in April, deepening worries of an economic slowdown in Asia's third-largest economy and upping the pressure on the central bank to cut interest rates next week.

Britain's Treasury chief says that uncertainty over the future of Europe's single currency is threatening to keep Britain from returning to economic growth.

Spain could ask for a rescue of its struggling banks this weekend when European finance ministers hold an emergency conference call Saturday to discuss the country's financial problems, a move that would make it the fourth member of the 17-nation eurozone to seek outside help since the continent's debt crisis erupted two years ago.

Greece's economy shrank further in the first three months of 2012, shriveling at a yearly rate of 6.5 percent against a backdrop of painful wage cuts, tax hikes and record unemployment.

China delivered a surprise interest rate cut on Thursday to combat faltering growth, underlining concern among policymakers worldwide that the euro area's deepening crisis is threatening the health of the global economy.

The European Commission will propose far-reaching powers for regulators to deal with failing banks on Wednesday, a step towards the banking union the European Central Bank has demanded to secure the euro's future.

When Jean-Claude Trichet called last June for the creation of a European finance ministry with power over national budgets, the idea seemed fanciful, a distant dream that would take years or even decades to realize, if it ever came to be.

Spain, the latest combat zone in Europe's long-running debt wars, urged the euro zone to set up a new fiscal authority to manage the bloc's finances and send a clear signal to markets that the single currency project is irreversible.

Oil prices plunged as bleak reports on U.S. job growth and manufacturing heightened worries about a slowing global economy. Benchmark oil fell $3.49 to $83.04 per barrel Friday.