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European SMEs have reached a new record low in business confidence, according to an EU-wide survey recently conducted by UEAPME, the European craft and SME employers' organisation, and its members.

In January 2009, compared with December 2008, the volume of retail trade rose by 0.1% in the euro area (EA16) and by 0.6% in the EU27. In December retail trade fell by 0.3% and 0.2% respectively.

If American consumers are active online, chances are they are banking online, according to research released today by HSBC Direct, which shows 49 percent of the online population conducts most, if not all, of its banking via the Internet, up nearly 23 percent from early 2007.

Nearly eight-in-ten Americans believe it is still possible to improve their economic standing and remain optimistic that their family's economic circumstances will improve within their lifetime and across generations. This is true across racial lines and even among lower-income, less-educated and unemployed people, according to a new national public opinion poll conducted for Pew's Economic Mobility Project by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and Public Opinion Strategies.

Urban investment in fixed assets stood at 1,027.6 billion yuan from January to February, a year-on-year rise of 26.5 percent. Of which, state-owned and state-holding enterprises invested 448.6 billion yuan, surging 35.6 percent; real estate development valued at 239.8 billion yuan, went up 1.0 percent.

Banks shouldn't be allowed to automatically enroll their customers in expensive overdraft loan programs, according to Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports. The group urged the Federal Reserve Board to require banks to get their customers' permission first before signing them up for high fee overdraft loan programs for overdrafts triggered by ATM and debit transactions.

Despite mounting job losses and a stock market spiraling toward a 12-year low, U.S. consumer sentiment edged up this month according to the most recent results of the RBC CASH (Consumer Attitudes and Spending by Household) Index. The survey, which measured the attitudes of 1,000 Americans earlier this week, found that consumer sentiment remained very low, but stable. As a result, the overall RBC CASH Index stands at 8.2 for March 2009, up slightly from 1.6 in February, the lowest level on record since the inception of the Index in 2002.

The European automobile manufacturers welcome the EUR 3 billion in loans freed by the European Investment Bank (EIB) to finance automotive projects, most of them concerning "green" investments. As the Bank indicated, in total around EUR 7 billion will become available in the first half of this year and its budget allows maintaining similar levels of financing until 2012.

In my January report, I predicted that we would not see the first IPO of 2009 until the middle of February due to Japan’s switch in January 2009 to the electronic stock certificate system. However, the year’s first IPO was on March 12, one month later than my forecast, when Daiken Medical listed its shares on the TSE 2nd section.

As part of its effort to combat climate change and drive economic recovery, the European Commission called on Member States and industry to use information and communications technologies (ICT) to improve energy efficiency. These technologies are expected to reduce total carbon emissions in Europe by up to 15% by 2020. ICT can not only improve monitoring and management of energy use in factories, offices and in public spaces but above all help make people more aware of how they use energy. With smart metering in their homes, for example, consumers have been found to reduce their energy consumption by as much as 10%.