Europe stocks continue to drop amid fears of global economic slowdown and Ebola crisis

European markets continue to tumble on October 16 amid fears of a global economic slowdown and the impact of the Ebola crisis.

The main stock markets in Germany, the UK and France fell more than 2%, tracking a sell-off in Asia and on Wall Street.

On October 15, London’s FTSE 100 saw its heaviest one-day fall in 16 months.

Borrowing costs for Greece and Italy rose, and investors looking for a safe haven pushed the gold price higher.

Analysts said that a raft of disappointing economic and corporate news had unnerved investors.

Recent poor data from China, Germany and the US have heightened worries that global economic recovery could go into reverse.

Meanwhile concerns about the spread of Ebola and its impact on emerging markets have added to the worries. Companies linked to travel and tourism have seen their share prices fall in the past couple of weeks, offsetting hopes that the recent fall in the oil price would lower their long-term fuel costs.

The price of US crude has gone below $80 a barrel for the first time since June 2012, pulling down oil-related shares such as BP and Tullow.

Financial shares were among some of the biggest fallers across Europe. Royal Bank of Scotland was down another 3.6% after falling heavily on October 15.

Meanwhile, in France, Societe Generale and BNP Paribas fell 5% and 4% respectively amid worries about their exposure to a slowdown in southern European economies.

Greece’s borrowing costs rose on Thursday on fears about the country’s exit from the bailout it received during the financial crisis.

The yield on Greek 10-year bonds rose 85.2 basis points to 8.72% – its highest since January. Investors are worried that the country could struggle to borrow money once it is weaned off bailout money.

In Spain, Madrid’s benchmark IBEX 35 index fell 4.28% after a bond issue failed to raise as much as the government hoped.

Meanwhile, gold traded at a one-month high, while the price of copper and some other metals fell to multi-month lows amid concern that demand would fall because of an economic slowdown.

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