A look at economic developments around the globe

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

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WASHINGTON ? The leaders of eight of the world's biggest economies meet this weekend outside Washington, seeking to keep Europe's debt crisis from spiraling out of control and jeopardizing fledgling recoveries in the U.S. and elsewhere.

The turmoil in Greece is draining confidence in the 17 countries that use the euro. Borrowing costs are up for the most indebted governments. Depositors and investors are fleeing banks seen as weak. Unemployment is soaring as recession grips nearly half the eurozone countries. And global markets are on edge.

All that forms a tumultuous backdrop as representatives of the G8 countries ? the United States, Germany, France, Britain, Japan, Russia, Italy and Canada ? head to Camp David. Standing in the way of a breakthrough are disagreements over how to bolster Europe's economy and avoid a broader catastrophe.

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MADRID ? Chaos in Greek politics and Spanish banking combined this week to underscore just how fragile Europe's economy remains after an eviscerating austerity regime that has spawned unemployment, desperation and misery. And there is no respite in sight, as Germany's finance minister predicted Friday that the crisis could last up to another two years.

Wolfgang Shaeuble, who holds the region's purse strings, chastised the leaders of the world's biggest economies as they headed to Washington for a weekend summit that efforts to fix the crisis over the past few years "weren't good enough." The leaders, he told French Radio Europe 1, "must show that Europe can achieve common positions more quickly."

But common positions have been in short supply.

After more than a week trying to form a government, Greek politicians gave up this week and called another vote for June ? with no real reason to think it will get them any further from the chaos that reigns. Spain was forced to deny that a troubled bank faced a run on its deposits, then saw a major ratings agency downgrade 16 of its lenders and four of its semi-autonomous regions, similar to U.S. states.

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LONDON ? Concerns that Europe's debt crisis could drag down parts of the continent's banking system rattled global markets on Friday, while the IPO of social network Facebook failed to buoy spirits on Wall Street.

Ratings agency Moody's downgraded 16 Spanish banks late Thursday, three days after downgrading 26 Italian lenders, noting they are vulnerable to huge losses on government debt.

After a day of volatile trading, Britain's FTSE 100 closed 0.7 percent lower at 5,267.62 while Germany's DAX dropped 0.6 percent to 6,271.22. France's CAC-40 shed 0.1 percent to 3,008.

Spain's main stock index recovered 0.2 percent from heavy losses on Thursday, thanks mainly to a bounce back in the shares of state-controlled lender Bankia, which had plummeted on Thursday on reports of an increase in deposit withdrawals.

Wall Street tracked European stocks lower on Friday after Facebook shares failed to sustain early gains on their first day of trading.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 0.4 percent at 12,397.69 and the S&P 500 lost 0.4 percent to 1,299.88.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 tumbled 3 percent to close at 8,611.31, its lowest finish in four months as signs of weakness in the U.S., a critical export market for Japanese companies, battered some of the country's behemoth manufacturers.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.3 percent to 18,951.85 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slid 2.7 percent to 4,046.50. South Korea's Kospi tumbled 3.4 percent to 1,782.46. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan and New Zealand also fell.

Mainland Chinese shares lost ground, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index losing 1.4 percent to 2,344.52. The Shenzhen Composite Index fell 1.5 percent to 940.91.

Benchmark oil for June delivery was down 77 cents to $91.79 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 25 cents to settle at $92.56 in New York on Thursday.

In currencies, the euro fell to $1.2711 from $1.2714 late Thursday in New York. The dollar rose slightly to 79.32 yen from 79.28 yen.

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PARIS ? Germany's finance minister estimates that Europe's spiraling debt crisis could last up to another two years.

Wolfgang Schaeuble also says it's vital that during this weekend's summit in Washington Europe's leaders show the world they are moving more quickly to stem the crisis that is jeopardizing economic recovery around the world.

Speaking on French radio Europe 1 Friday, Schaeuble said "In 12 to 24 months we'll have a calming of financial markets."

Schaeuble also said that Europe's leaders "weren't good enough" over the past two years of unending crisis in Europe and said "It's very important during the G-8 to show that Europe can achieve common positions more quickly."

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ATHENS, Greece ? Germany's chancellor apparently waded into Greece's choppy political waters on Friday, with Athens saying Angela Merkel suggested that the country should hold a referendum on the euro together with next month's national elections.

But government spokesman Dimitris Tsiodras ruled out the idea, which he said Merkel floated during a phone call with Greek President Karolos Papoulias earlier in the day.

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Twenty-one members of Golden Dawn were sworn into Greece's Parliament on Thursday, making it arguably the most far-right party to enter a European national legislature since Nazi-era Germany.

Europe's financial crisis is changing the tone across the continent, with frustrated voters turning to extremists on both the right and left. None seem as extreme as Golden Dawn, whose leaders claim that the Nazis did not use gas chambers to kill death camp inmates during the Holocaust. The party ? which won 7 percent of the vote in a May 6 election ? says it wants to rid Greece of immigrants and plant landmines along the border with Turkey.

The new parliament will hold power just one day because the election left no party with enough votes to form a government, forcing repeat elections next month. Recent polls show falling support for Golden Dawn, so it's not certain to make it into parliament again. Still, many people across Europe are troubled.

"The Golden Dawn party is a dark stain on European politics," said Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress. "For the first time in over six decades a seemingly long hidden Nazi ideology returned to power."

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LONDON ? The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has elected a British civil servant as its new president.

The London-based bank announced Friday that its shareholders had appointed Suma Chakrabarti to serve as president for the next four years. He replaces Germany's Thomas Mirow. Chakrabarti is currently a senior civil servant in Britain's Ministry of Justice.

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LONDON ? HSBC may decide to sell its U.K. retail banking operations, depending on the impact of yet to be announced new banking regulations, published reports say.

The Times and the Financial Times reported Friday that the new British regulations, which are expected to include a rule requiring banks to ring-fence their retail operations to shield them from investment banking, could mean that the retail side would fall short of HSBC's profit targets.

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LONDON ? British officials have given their word: "We won't read your emails."

But experts say the government's proposed new surveillance program will gather so much data that spooks won't have to read your messages to guess what you're up to.

The U.K. Home Office stresses it won't be reading the content of every Britons' communications, saying the data it seeks "is NOT the content of any communication." It is, however, looking for information about who's sending the message and to whom, where it's sent from and other details, including a message's length and its format.

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DUBLIN ? Ireland's government denied Friday that it would stage a second referendum if voters decide this month to reject the European Union fiscal treaty, as has happened the last two times the Irish put a complex EU pact to their people.

Government leaders scrambled to limit damage to their campaign for a yes vote after Enterprise Minister Richard Bruton appeared to suggest that the treaty must be ratified ? even if that meant telling uncooperative Irish voters to try again.

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ANKARA, Turkey ? Turkey on Friday called on major international oil and gas companies seeking licenses to search for gas deposits off Cyprus to withdraw their bids, saying it will not allow exploration to go ahead and threatening to ban them from Turkish energy projects.

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