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The strength and resilience of the euro-area financial system has benefited from generally favourable economic and financial conditions in the six months since the publication of the December 2006 Review. Profitability in both the banking and insurance sectors has been improving and the amount of problem loans has remained low. For the most part, financial markets have been characterised by unusually subdued volatility, credit spreads have remained very low and many asset prices have reached historically high levels. In February and March 2007, the shock-absorbing capacity of the financial system was again tested by the third significant burst of market volatility in the past two years which it weathered comfortably. Improvements in the risk management practices of financial firms appear to have contributed to ensuring that higher financial market volatility did not prevent capital markets from facilitating the intermediation of capital.

Demographic change and population ageing are making supplementary pension schemes an increasingly important way to secure decent living standards in old age. A new directive aims to facilitate workers' mobility within and across Member States by setting minimum standards for the acquisition and preservation of supplementary pension rights.

In the construction sector, seasonally adjusted production fell by 0.9% in the euro area (EA13) and by 0.1% in the EU27 in April 2007, compared with the previous month. In March production increased by 0.7% in the euro area and by 0.9% in the EU27. Compared with April 2006, output in April 2007 gained 3.9% in the euro area and 6.6% in the EU27. In March the annual growth was 10.8% in the euro area and 10.7% in the EU27.

Economic growth in Korea remains one of the highest in the OECD area, led by buoyant exports. Sluggish domestic demand in recent years, though, suggests the need to address structural weaknesses in order to continue the convergence to income levels in the high income countries.

With the world's second-largest and fastest-growing Internet user population, China has become the next frontier for Web 2.0 activity. In recent months, MySpace, Yahoo! and Google have all made inroads into the Chinese market by either launching local versions of their sites or investing in China-based technology or social networking startups.

Regional and state unemployment rates were generally little changed in May. Overall, 26 states recorded over-the-month unemployment rate increases, 15 states and the District of Columbia registered decreases, and 9 states had no changes, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported.

The results of a national online Magid Media Futures(TM) survey conducted the last week in March of 2007 have just been released, documenting the huge growth in popularity for Americans to view video online over the Internet. Daily usage of online video rose by 56 percent over the last year. In 2006, 9 percent of 12- to 64-year-old Americans who used the Internet reported using online video daily - every day. Today, in 2007, this number has risen to 14 percent of Americans 12 to 64 years old.

Going into the Paris Air Show, M&A activity for the year is already running at record rates, with $33.2 billion in transactions announced or completed, according to Defense Mergers & Acquisitions (DM&A), the industry's premiere online news and analysis service focused on M&A activity in the defense, aerospace, and government technology sectors.

The mobile sector has grown from around 10 million subscribers in 2002 to reach 150 million by early 2007, the rate of market expansion being boosted by low tariffs and falling handset prices. While GSM technology has continued to be dominant in the country’s mobile market, CDMA has been increasing its market share and had grabbed a 30% share by early 2007. With this in mind the mobile industry should continue its present strong growth.

Vericept Corporation announced the results of an Enterprise Strategy Group research report that found that more than one-third of organizations not using a data loss prevention solution had information stolen from their databases within the last 12 months and that 30 percent of those data breaches impacted bottom-line revenues.