LONDON: Greece's shock referendum spells at least 10 more weeks of deep freeze for global investment and that hiatus may be enough to tip the world economy back into recession this winter.

For many global investors, it's hard to overestimate the impact of Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou's surprise decision on Halloween night to call a public vote on last week's latest and tortuously assembled European Union rescue.

Before money managers even begin to discuss the likelihood of Papandreou winning the vote - and most assume that will be a struggle at least - any hope of a year-end rally or even stabilisation of world markets have now been doused.

"Try as we might, there is nothing good to be said about this decision as it affects markets and growth over the balance of this year," said Paul Mortimer-Lee, global head of market economics at BNP Paribas.

One key issue for the world economy at large over recent months was whether dire readings of business and household confidence were overly pessimistic and too focussed on volatile markets rather than the more robust real economic data starting to emerge, especially from the United States.

A brief stabilisation of financial markets at the end of last month suggested a durable euro policy solution could allow sentiment to recover to reflect a more benign reality.

But as the referendum refuels bank and government funding concerns and shrouds Europe back in policy uncertainty for another two to three months at minimum, actual economic activity may again deteriorate in line with the surveyed gloom.

And the timing couldn't be worse. Global manufacturing surveys for October hover on the cusp of another major contraction that only needs another nudge to flag full blown recession. And the International Labour Organisation warned on Monday of social unrest from a new global jobs recession as unemployment worldwide hit record levels.

"Grenade" was a word used widely by investors and other EU governments, such as fellow bailout recipient Ireland, to describe Monday's leftfield shock. Markets reacted accordingly.

Euro financial bellwethers, most of which had surged after last week's EU agreement on a 50 per cent Greek debt writeoff and the bolstering of a central fund for bank recapitalisation and sovereign bond backstops, have now fully reversed.

Euro zone bank stock indices dropped up to 7 per cent on Tuesday alone to levels of 10 days ago, as if the intervening EU summits never happened. The euro lunged back to levels of almost a month ago and 10-year Italian government borrowing premia rose to new euro-era records.

But this is not just euro specific. This is global. Despite weeks of impressive domestic economic data, US stocks have lost more than 5 per cent since the referendum bombshell to return to their lowest in 10 days.

That instant repricing makes clear that markets see the wait for the referendum, which would be expected to take place in mid January at the earliest, as putting all aspects of last week's stabilisation plan on ice.

"As we near the referendum date, uncertainty over its outcome as well as the future of the euro zone as a whole can only increase and introduce increased volatility into asset markets," said Andreas Utermann, Global Chief Investment Officer at the $150 billion asset manager RCM.

MANILA — The Philippines said Wednesday it had banned Filipinos from travelling to work in 41 countries and territories that had allegedly failed to provide enough safeguards to protect them from abuse.
The Department of Labour and Employment in a board resolution posted on its website said the blacklisted countries failed to sign international conventions protecting foreign workers.
Neither have these countries signed bilateral agreements with the Philippines "on the protection of the rights of overseas Filipino workers," the resolution said.
They also do not have their own laws protecting foreign workers, the resolution added.
Included in the list were strife-torn countries such as Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Sudan, Chad and Pakistan.
It was not clear how the deployment ban could affect the country's economy. The labour minister was not immediately available to comment when contacted by AFP.
There are an estimated nine million Filipino overseas workers, or about 10 percent of the country's population, official statistics show.
Many of them work as maids, labourers or seamen in areas where they are vulnerable to abuse although many Filipinos also work in higher positions in Western nations.
Their dollar remittances have traditionally kept the Philippine economy afloat, although reports of abuse are common.
While Manila has in the past banned deployment to some areas locked in conflict, many Filipinos still leave through illegal means rather than take low-paying jobs at home.