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There are widespread problems with refusals of orders for EU consumers trying to purchase goods online in another Member state, according to a new European Commission report on cross border consumer e-commerce. An extensive independent mystery shopping exercise was carried out for the Commission where shoppers across the EU tried to purchase a list of 100 popular products –for example cameras, CDs, books, clothes - from a cross border provider. Over 11,000 test orders were carried out. The research found that 60% of cross border transactions could not be completed by consumers because the trader did not ship the product to their country or did not offer adequate means for cross border payment.

According to the latest revisions, the EU27 external current account recorded a deficit of 49.2 billion euro in the second quarter of 2009, compared with a deficit of 76.3 bn in the second quarter of 2008 and a deficit of 54.6 bn in the first quarter of 2009.

In the first three quarters of 2009, the various localities and departments have conscientiously implemented the arrays of plans by the central government and the State Council on dealing with the international financial crisis and maintaining stable and fast development of the economy. We have attained obvious achievements, and further strengthened the steady upturn trend of the economy. The overall situation of national economy was good.

The European Investment Bank’s Board of Directors today approved loans to European-based car makers worth a total of EUR 600m.

In 2008, the government deficit and government debt of both the euro area (EA16) and the EU27 increased compared with 2007. In the euro area the government deficit to GDP ratio increased from 0.6% in 2007 to 2.0% in 2008, and in the EU27 it increased from 0.8% to 2.3%. In the euro area the government debt to GDP ratio increased from 66.0% at the end of 2007 to 69.3% at the end of 2008, and in the EU27 from 58.7% to 61.5%.

MEPs demanded €1.5 billion in fresh money to finance the economic recovery plan and €300 million for a new dairy fund in a vote on Thursday. In general, they restored the Commission's preliminary draft budget after the Council's cuts.

The average conforming 30-year fixed mortgage rate notched higher to 5.34 percent, according to Bankrate.com's weekly national survey. The average 30-year fixed mortgage has an average of 0.36 discount and origination points.

Corporate America's commitment to workers' retirement plans, measured by benefit values as a percentage of pay, has dropped consistently over the last decade, according to research by Watson Wyatt, a leading global consulting firm. The research found that companies that shifted from defined benefit (DB) plans to defined contribution (DC) plans had the steepest drops, whereas companies that had only DC plans actually had small increases in benefit value, albeit from lower levels.

Regional and state unemployment rates were generally little changed in September. Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia recorded over-the-month unemployment rate increases, 19 states registered rate decreases, and 8 states had no rate change, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Over the year, jobless rates increased in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The national unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent in September, up 0.1 percentage point from August and 3.6 points from September 2008.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index™ (LEI) for France increased 0.9 percent and The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index™ (CEI) remained unchanged in August.