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The Internet will be a key tool for saving money this holiday shopping season, according to US online females surveyed in October 2008 by SheSpeaks. More than two-thirds of respondents said they would try to use more coupons and coupon codes this year, and nearly as many said they would spend more time online looking for bargains.

Increasing oil price and growing concerns over energy security are helping accelerate the development and commercialization of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). Federal and local governments have been proactively funding fuel cell technology and in the medium term, there would be rigorous developments in fuel cell technology, standardization of production and storage of hydrogen, and ramping up of the mammoth task of building hydrogen infrastructure.

Across Europe, we are transforming into a continent of content-craving "connect-aholics", according to the findings of the AMD European Connectivity Study of over 5,000 online respondents. Sponsored by AMD, in conjunction with independent research company, YouGov, 77% of respondents said they could not live without daily access to the internet.

The annual growth rate of the outstanding amount of debt securities issued by euro area residents decreased from 7.8% in August 2008 to 7.1% in September. For the outstanding amount of quoted shares issued by euro area residents, the annual growth rate was 0.8% in September 2008, the same as in August.

On 13 and 14 November the French Presidency of the European Union organised a conference in Lille on the equality of men and women in working life. At the same time, an informal meeting of ministers responsible for equal opportunities is being held to discuss the pay gap and making use at European level of good business practices.

The first estimate for the euro area (EA15) trade balance with the rest of the world in September 2008 gave a 5.6 bn euro deficit, compared with +2.9 bn in September 2007. The August 2008 balance was -9.4 bn, compared with +1.1 bn in August 2007. In September 2008 compared with August 2008, seasonally adjusted exports rose by 2.2% and imports by 2.1%.

The nation's mayors reiterated their call for a Main Street Stimulus package in the lame-duck Congress by releasing the first in a series of reports that inventories each city's "ready-to-go" infrastructure projects - projects that could be started and completed in calendar year 2009 - if emergency federal funding were made available. Information on these projects has been submitted to the U.S. Conference of Mayors from 153 cities of all sizes in all regions of the country. In this first release, cities have identified a total of 4,591 infrastructure projects costing a total of $24.4 billion that would create more than a quarter of a million jobs.

While the nation's current economic downturn is leading to strong sales increases for store brand products, Brian Sharoff, President of the Private Label Manufacturers Association, warned that the industry must be careful to maintain high quality standards in order to insure than the gains are long-lasting.

The US and European economies sent a far more realistic message last week about the outlook for the global economy than the weekend's Group of 20 meeting of leaders from the globe's 20 largest economies did in Washington.

The U.S. Import Price Index fell for the third consecutive month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported, decreasing 4.7 percent in October and 10.6 percent over the past three months. Export prices declined 1.9 percent in October, the third consecutive monthly decrease.