A look at economic developments and activity in major stock markets around the world

A look at economic developments and activity in major stock markets around the world Thursday:

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HONG KONG _ Asian economies from China to India will grow faster than expected through next year thanks to aggressive government stimulus spending and a pickup in global trade, the International Monetary Fund said, raising its forecast for the region.

Their recoveries will far outpace the rebound in the West, the IMF said.

But the region's rapid expansion will remain below the levels seen in the decade before the economic crisis as consumers in the U.S. and other large industrialized nations curtail their spending on Asian-made goods in the face of rising unemployment and other legacies of the downturn.

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BRUSSELS _ Business and consumer confidence in the 16 nations that use the euro rose to the highest level in a year in October, helped by strong expectations for a rebound in manufacturing, the European Commission survey said.

The EU executive said industrial companies were reporting "significant improvement in new orders received in the last three months" and were upbeat about orders in the next three months.

It warned that the survey of how companies and consumers see the economy was still well below the long-term average but has been rising steadily for the seven months since March.

In European markets, Germany's DAX closed up 1.7 percent to 5,587.45, Britain's FTSE 100 added 1.1 percent to 5,137.72, and France's CAC 40 jumped 1.4 percent to 3,714.02.

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TOKYO _ Japan's factory output rose for the seventh straight month in September, as recovering global trade boosted demand for the country's cars and electronics.

Industrial production _ a key barometer of the country's economic health _ rose 1.4 percent from August and continues to rise, the government said.

Shares dropped in Asian trading after weak data on the housing sector in the U.S. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index dropped 1.8 percent, China's benchmark Shanghai Composite Index shed 2.3 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 2.3 percent, South Korea's Kospi fell 1.5 percent and Singapore's Straits Times Index dropped 0.7 percent. Taiwan's Taiex and Sydney's S&P/ASX 200 suffered the region's biggest declines, both falling 2.4 percent.

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LONDON _ Lloyds Banking Group PLC confirmed it was in advanced negotiations with the government to raise new capital to avoid making taxpayers the majority owner of the bank.

Published reports have suggested the bank will seek to raise 25 billion pounds ($41 billion), including a share issue of up to 15 billion pounds.

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HANGZHOU, China _ Doggedly cordial trade talks between top Chinese and U.S. officials were overshadowed by Beijing's surprise probe into American auto exports, underlining tensions ahead of President Barack Obama's first visit to China.

The start of the formal talks ran two hours late as discussions over nuts and bolts issues dragged on, and officials addressing the opening session referred constantly to the need to speak with "candor" _ in diplomat-speak a word often signaling differences of opinion.

But officials on both sides claimed deals were made on a number of rankling issues.

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LONDON _ GMAC-RFC Ltd. has been fined 2.8 million pounds ($4.6 million) for unfair treatment of mortgage customers who had fallen behind on payments, and will pay up to 7.7 million pounds ($12.6 million) compensation to customers, the U.K.'s Financial Services Authority said.

The FSA said as many as 46,000 customers who were in arrears or faced repossession were due for compensation under terms of the settlement with GMAC-RFC, a subsidiary of Detroit-based GMAC Financial Services.

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FRANKFURT _ German unemployment fell again in October, but the effects of the financial crisis lingered and it was still too early to expect a turnaround in the economy, the country's labor ministry said.

The unadjusted jobless rate in Europe's biggest economy was 7.7 percent, down from 8 percent the previous month and below the 8.3 percent in August.

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PARIS _ French bank Societe Generale SA said it has completed a 4.8 billion euros ($7.1 billion) capital increase in order to pay back government bailout money.

Societe General said it would repay a total of 3.4 billion euros to the government on November 4.

The rest of the money will strengthen SocGen's capital position and fund the acquisition of 20 percent of French lender Credit du Nord from Franco-Belgian lender Dexia SA.

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CHISINAU, Moldova _ The International Monetary Fund has agreed to give Moldova a $590 million loan to help the country's economy stabilize and recover from recession, the prime minister said.

Prime Minister Vlad Filat and the IMF chief-negotiator for Moldova Nikolay Guerguiev agreed upon the loan late Wednesday. The three-year agreement is expected to be approved by the IMF board in January 2010.

Guerguiev said another $180 million will be made available immediately.

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BELGRADE, Serbia _ Serbia and Russia began negotiating the conditions for a $1 billion (675 million euros) loan, which some fear is an attempt by Moscow to extend its influence in the Balkan country.

During his visit earlier this month, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev approved the credit to be used to finance Serbia's budget deficit and major infrastructure projects.

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