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The Conference Board Leading Economic Index™ (LEI) for Australia increased 0.2 percent and The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index™ (CEI) for Australia increased 0.4 percent in February.

If they could not work because of injury or illness, most people who do not have disability coverage would tap savings, borrow from credit cards or ask friends, family or a partner to help support them, according to a study commissioned by Unum and conducted by Harris Interactive.

In the fourth quarter of 2008, in both the euro area and the EU27, the seasonally adjusted household saving rate increased, while the household investment rate decreased. In both zones, businesses recorded a fall in investment rates and in profit shares.

Across OECD countries, close to 40% of high-school students who come top in science subjects have no interest in pursuing a science-related career, while almost 45% do not want to continue studying science, according to a new OECD report. For countries that need to develop high-level skills in order to drive productivity and innovation, that’s bad news.

In the fourth quarter of 2008, the annual growth rate of net disposable income in the euro area equalled -0.4%, compared with 3.0% in the third quarter of 200. The annual growth rate of consumption was 2.2% in the fourth quarter, which was lower than in the third quarter (4.3%). The annual growth rate of gross fixed capital formation decreased to -3.1% in the fourth quarter of 2008, from 3.4% in the previous quarter. In the fourth quarter the annual growth rate of net saving declined to -24.9%, from -10.9% in the previous quarter.

The French economy has not escaped the severe recession gripping all developed countries. After ending the year 2008 with a sharp decline, output is likely to contract further during the rest of this year, and prospects for 2010 remain highly uncertain, despite the many stimulus plans at home and abroad. The recession should be less deep than elsewhere, due inter alia to powerful automatic stabilisers. However, while the finances of big banks and households do not appear to be in as bad shape as they are in several other countries, the capacity of the French private sector to revive activity in advance of a global recovery is limited. Moreover, given the already high deficit and debt levels, the crisis will leave public finances in a serious condition.

In the first quarter, the average wage of on-duty staff and workers in urban units reached 7,399 yuan, surged 875 yuan over same period of previous year which stood at 6,524 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.4 percent, or 4.9 percentage points dropped over previous first quarter which with an increase of 18.3 percent.

The Bloomberg Euro-Zone Retail Purchasing Managers' Index is based on a mid-month survey of more than 1,000 executives in the euro area retail sector and provides data one month ahead of government-issued figures. The PMI rose in April to 48.4, from 44.1 in March, indicating the weakest rate of decline since the current sequence of contraction began last June. Although sales have now fallen for 11 consecutive months, the rate of decline has eased from the series record registered last November.

The Commission adopted a €139bn preliminary draft budget for 2010. Economic recovery is at the heart of next year’s spending and the proposal channels the biggest share of funds (45%) into growth and employment measures – a 3.2% rise on 2009 – to help restore competitiveness across the Union. Funds for major programmes linked to research and energy will increase by more than 12% and cash for cohesion policy will grow too, with the EU-12 set to receive 52% of cohesion and Structural Funds. All headings in the budget will see an increase, reaching a total of €138.6bn in commitments (1.18% of GNI) and €122.3bn in payments (1.04% of GNI).

In April, the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) for the EU and the euro area picked up for the first time since May 2007 (excluding a small blip in March 2008 for the EU). It increased by 3.5 points in the EU, and by 2.5 points in the euro area, to 63.9 and 67.2 respectively.