France risks attracting the ire of its European neighbors when it unveils plans to raise tens of billions of euros in new borrowing just as its EU partners are being urged to begin reining in the stimulus packages that caused deficits and debts to skyrocket.

Private equity firms will need to become more like asset managers, offering buyouts as just part of their portfolio, or else focus tightly on specific sectors in order to prosper, industry participants said.

France has for decades been fiercely proud of its world-beating nuclear industry but is now having to import electricity from its neighbors and could face blackouts this winter.

Switzerland proposed on Wednesday tighter rules to define the "Swiss-made" label as it seeks to protect the country's reputation for quality goods from watches to cheese and penknives.

The European Union says 6 million more people in the bloc signed up to broadband Internet access over the last year.

British retail expenditure this Christmas will fall for the first time since the late 1980s, as non-food sales decline by 2.5 percent or 1.3 billion pounds (US$2.2 billion), according to a survey published on Tuesday.

The 16 countries that use the euro brushed aside the impact of a rising currency and posted an unexpected trade surplus in September due to a sharp rebound in exports, official figures showed Tuesday.

France's finance minister has called on global regulators to probe potential competition abuses in the financial sector following huge government bailouts and consolidation, a report said Tuesday.

The head of British bank Standard Chartered attacked Tuesday plans for tougher global regulation following the financial crisis, warning costs would be passed on to customers.

Consumer prices in the 16 countries that use the euro fell by 0.1 percent in the year to October, official figures confirmed Monday.