Back to the breakdown of those talks between Greek government officials and Troika officials in Paris. Our correspondent Helena Smith reports:

Barely hours after their seeming collapse, the Greek finance minister Gikas Hardouvelis has gone out of his way to put a positive spin on the Paris talks. The economics professor informed reporters in the French capital that things weren’t as bad as they looked. Progress, he insisted, had been made on several fronts even if agreement had not been struck and a date settled for the auditors’ return to Athens.

“There was convergence on many issues,” he was quoted as saying. Echoing that view, the European Commission’s chief inspector Declan Costello, called the talks “intense and constructive.” Disagreement, once again, had centred on projections for next year’s fiscal gap. Lenders argue it will be at least €2.5bn – far greater than the €350m now estimated by the Greek government - and, they claim, impossible to cover without further measures.

Insiders said bleary-eyed participants (discussions lasted a marathon 11 hours ending at around 4 AM today) would go back to Greece in upbeat mood that negotiations that have come to be the hardest yet had “moved forward” in some respects.

Talks had focused on labour relations, pensions and administrative reforms – creditors are demanding that the country’s loss-making pension system, in particular, be overhauled. Digging in its heels, the Greek side said further cuts would only backfire. “We are confident a date for the auditors return will be agreed shortly,” said one official denying the negotiations had effectively collapsed. “This round [of negotiations] is especially strenuous precisely because it is the last.”

Jean-Claude Juncker’s €300bn plan to revive the eurozone economy sounds too good to be true, and it is, according to our economics editor Larry Elliott:

Junkcer at least recognises there is a need to act, but there are problems with the scheme, writes Larry:

The first drawback with the Juncker plan is that there is only €20bn (£15bn) of new money, with the rest coming from the private sector. Brussels will provide guarantees should any of the investments in roads, railways, energy projects or a speedier internet go pear-shaped. Some critics have already dubbed this highly leveraged scheme as Juncker’s version of subprime mortgage debt.

In reality, Brussels has had little alternative but to provide seedcorn cash and hope it will generate private sector involvement. Between them Britain and Germany have ensured that the commission’s budget remains tiny. Juncker simply does not have the funds available for a big increase in public spending. Given that the eurozone is a €13tn economy, what’s on offer is pretty small beer.

The second drawback is that the investment – even assuming it happens – will take time to arrive. Every European Union country has sent in a list of pet projects and these will have to be assessed by a panel of experts before a final list can be drawn up. This is a recipe for bureaucratic delay and the customary horse-trading as each country demands its share of the action. It is unlikely work on a single project will begin until 2016, when what Europe needs is an immediate boost to demand.

Full comment here:

Juncker’s €300bn kickstarter sounds too good to be true – it is

And here’s the latest Reuters take on the Greece talks in Paris:

Greece and its EU/IMF lenders failed to resolve differences over next year’s budget at talks in Paris, a Greek official said on Wednesday, raising doubts about whether Athens can meet a deadline to wrap up its bailout programme.

The two sides have been haggling over a projected budget shortfall next year, which has held up an overall deal on the final bailout review. Athens needs to strike that deal by a December 8 deadline to ensure it makes good on a pledge to quit its €240bn ($300bn) bailout by the end of the year.

The official said there had been no discussion of extending the bailout beyond the end of the year, but also added that no date had been set for the return of EU/IMF inspectors to Athens.

The inspectors failed to return to Athens as expected earlier this month and in a surprise move, the two sides held talks in Paris this week that ended on Wednesday.

“The number one issue is the fiscal gap for 2015,” the Greek finance ministry official told reporters after the talks ended.

The lenders say Athens faces a shortfall of over €2bn next year unless it waters down a generous state arrears payback plan for austerity-hit Greeks or takes other measures.

Athens says it faces no such shortfall and last week submitted its plans for a near-balanced budget to parliament without approval from the inspectors.

Greece’s government has staked its survival on abandoning the bailout. It is hoping an early exit from the reviled programme will help it win enough support to scrape through a presidential vote in February and avoid early elections.

And more from Paris on the concluded talks between the Greek government and its troika of lenders:

The next splurge of US data shows a mixed picture, with consumer sentiment up, Chicago manufacturing activity slowing and house sales disappointing.

US consumer sentiment rose in November to its highest level in more than seven years. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s final reading came in at 88.8, up from 86.9 in October but below the preliminary estimate of 89.4.

Survey director Richard Curtin said:

Consumers more frequently reported hearing about positive rather than negative economic developments in the November survey, with reports of improving employment the dominant news item.

This contrasts with disappointing consumer confidence figures on Tuesday.

Meanwhile the pace of business activity in the midwest slowed in November. The ISM Chicago business barometer fell from 66.2 in October to 60.8, below expectations of a figure of 63.

Philip Uglow, chief economist of MNI Indicators - which publishes the report in partnership with ISM-Chicago - said:

Following the sharp rise in the barometer to a one year high in October it wasn’t too surprising to see activity ease somewhat in November. Overall the trend remains firm and activity looks set to pick up in the fourth quarter from the third.

Finally sales of new single family homes rose for a third straight month in October, up 0.7% to an annual rate of 458,000 units compared to expectations of a figure of 472,000.

And September’s number was revised down from 467,000 to 455,000.

The US data so far (there is more to come shortly in the form of housing, confidence and Chicago manufacturing) was not particularly re-assuring, says Rob Carnell at ING Bank:

[The data] sheds some doubt on the positive message delivered by the previous day’s upwards GDP revisions.

October durable goods orders, for which the key focus is the core goods orders ex-defence and ex-aircraft, dipped 1.3% month on month, taking the three-month annualised trend down from 11.2% in September, to only 2.7% in October. Core capital goods shipments also declined, though not as much. These two categories usually give a rough approximation to quarterly business investment in equipment and software published in the GDP data. This is therefore a weak start to the fourth quarter.

Adding to a weak set of orders data, the latest weekly initial jobless claims figure spiked higher too, rising from 292,000 to 313,000, and confirming that the last month has seen a reversal in the recent downtrend. Our suspicion is that this will be short-lived. We saw a similar spike in November last year. But it doesn’t help when all the other data are also looking a bit soft. We will need to see claims data dip sharply down in the coming weeks if we are not to begin to doubt the resilience of the recovery in the labour market.

Personal income and spending data were also disappointing, which also raises doubts about fourth quarter 2014 GDP (was already looking challenged) though there were some upwards revisions to the spending numbers that soften the blow a little. The September spending figure was revised to flat from -0.2%, so the undershoot of the October 0.3% consensus estimate by 0.1 percentage point isn’t as bad as it first looks, but in no way suggests a strong rebound from the limp 2.2% annualised consumer spending growth recorded in the third quarter.

These data may well explain why consumer confidence data took an unexpected dive in November, though there may also be some distortion showing through from the recent mid-term elections. Expectations of Fed tightening next year will doubtless be trimmed in the light of this data, sapping some support for the US dollar.

Robin Bew, managing director of The Economist Intelligence Unit, is also unimpressed by the nitty-gritty of today’s UK growth report.

And.....US consumer spending only rose by 0.2% last month, missing forecasts of a 0.3% rise.

The America’s Commerce Department also reported that personal incomes rose by 0.2% in October, only half as fast as expected.

The negotiations between Greece’s government ministers and its international lenders in Paris have ended (at least for the moment), according to reports on the wires.

And the two sides do not appear to have reached agreement over Greece’s fiscal plans for 2015.

The Troika had been demanding extra measures to cover a fiscal gap of around €3bn, which Athens denies is needed.

The number of people in work in the Irish Republic it at its highest since 2009, our Dublin correspondent Henry McDonald reports:

Unemployment is still falling with the jobless rate currently down to 11.% of the workforce in Ireland, according to the Central Statistics Office in Dublin.

The CSO said this is the eight successive quarter of a year where there has been an annual increase in employment.

The number of long term unemployed in Ireland is also falling from 7.6% to 6.4% from the previous quarter, the CSO said.

Responding to the falling dole queue numbers, Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan said:

“The Irish Economy is growing strongly and most importantly jobs are being created. Budget 2015 was designed to strengthen and broaden this recovery to families across the country.”

In other news... property inflation in Ireland has hit its highest level in eight years, with prices up 16.3% year-on-year in October.

Here’s our news story on today’s UK growth data:

UK GDP growth: fears mount that plan to rebalance economy is failing

Lee Hopley, chief economist at manufacturers group EEF, has urged George Osborne to give exporters more assistance.

“While business investment posted a bit of a dip, this isn’t yet cause for concern as surveys of intentions across the private sector seem to be holding.

The drag from net trade is, however, providing a bigger challenge to rebalancing ambitions. Next week’s Autumn Statement needs to ensure that the business environment for companies planning to invest, recruit and get into new markets are a target for further action from the Chancellor.”

There is little evidence in today’s GDP report that Britain’s economy is rebalancing, warns Mark Miller, UK analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

The expenditure components do not suggest a meaningful shift to more balanced economic activity, with private consumption growth accelerating modestly during the latest quarter and exports contracting at the same pace as in the second quarter.

And the troubles in the eurozone, which only grew 0.2% last month, may mean the UK remains too dependent on consumer spending rather than exports:

Amid current signs of weaker growth in the euro zone, it is far from clear this re-balancing will be achieved anytime soon.”

Marc Ostwald of ADM Investor Services says:

On the surface GDP looks OK, with growth unrevised at +0.7% quarter-on-quarter.... but the details are not good outside of the services sector’s growth of 0.8%, revised up from a preliminary reading of 0.7%

Britain was not the fastest growing member of the G7 in the last quarter alone.

America’s economy expanded by almost 1% in the July-September period, according to data released yesterday.

However, the US did contract last winter, so its annual growth rate lags behind the UK.

You can see the full GDP report yourself, on the ONS website (right-click to open in a new tab).

Newsnight economics editor Duncan Weldon agrees that the GDP report isn’t very encouraging, even though growth was confirmed at 0.7%.

And for all the talk of rebalancing the economy, consumer spending continues to help drive the recovery.

The ONS says household final consumption expenditure rose by 0.8% in Q3 2014 and has increased for thirteen consecutive quarters.

Yesterday, Bank of England policymaker Kristin Forbes told MPs that people have been dipping into their savings to fund spending; that’s why real wage growth is desperately needed.

The ONS says that the drop in business investment was led by “the intellectual property products (IPP), and in particular the software component of this asset”.

The UK construction sector grew by 0.8%, in line with the first estimate of GDP.

The UK recovery looks less balanced, according to the data just released.

The ONS has revised up growth in the service sector in the last quarter to +0.8%, from +0.7% originally.

But industrial production has been revised down - output only grew by 0.2%, not the 0.5% first estimated. That’s mainly due to a drop in activity in mining and quarrying.

Here comes the second estimate of UK GDP.....

Heads up: European Central Bank vice-president Vitor Constancio has declared that the ECB could start a full-blown quantitative easing programme early next year.

In a speech in London, Constancio slaps down suggestions that the ECB shouldn’t, or couldn’t, embark on sovereign QE (buying government bonds with new money).

It would, he says, be a “purely monetary policy decision”, within the ECB’s “mandate and our legal competence”. And the ECB should be able to tell whether to do it, or now, during the first quarter of 2015.

Steve Collins, global head of dealing at London & Capital Asset Management, reckons Constancio has stirred things up:

In the financial markets.... the pound is flat this morning at $1.571 as traders wait for the second estimate of UK GDP to be released at 9.30am.

European stock markets are up this morning. Traders say that yesterday’s strong US GDP figures, showing its economy growing by almost 4%,

• FTSE 100: up 15 points at 6746
  
• German DAX: up 53 points at 9914
  
• French CAC: up 2 points at 4385
  

No respite for Thomas Cook; shares are still down around 20% as investors wonder exactly what’s behind Harriet Green’s exit.

Green has given some intriguing interviews this year. In January she told Management Today that she won’t hang around when the time comes to leave the company:

‘CEOs spend too long in the same job,’ she says. ‘You should do what you have to do, have maybe a couple of years hugging everyone and then move on. I think that adds up to six or seven years, not 16 or 17.’

Not just two years, then?

The Times also ran a big piece on her last month (starting at 5.30am in the gym of the five-star Mayfair hotel where she spends the week), in which she was “adamant” that she was nowhere near finished at Thomas Cook:

Recent “babble” that she might take a peerage and a government job is nonsense. “Anyone who knows me in the least would know that a tap on the shoulder to be Lady Whatever to solve the National Health Service is not me, not how I function. I don’t like any form of supervision, let alone government and voters.”

Juncker began his appearance in the European Parliament by declaring that “Christmas has come early”, as he explained how his €315bn investment fund would work. He concluded by warning MEPs that ‘there can be no turning back”.

The BBC website has a rolling report:

BBC: European Parliament live

Here’s our news story on the shenanigans at Thomas Cook:

Thomas Cook chief Harriet Green in shock departure

The sudden, unexpected nature of Harriet Green’s departure has clearly spooked investors: