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The Conference Board announced that the U.S. leading index decreased 0.5 percent, the coincident index decreased 0.1 percent and the lagging index increased 0.4 percent in August.

In August, the national real estate climate index was 101.78, 0.58 and 2.70 points lower than the previous month, and over the same period last year.

Survey data presented at the Economist Conferences' Fifth China Branding Roundtable in Beijing indicate that 31 percent of Chinese consumers identify the environment as a higher priority than the economy, a percentage that is significantly higher than consumers in the US and slightly higher than consumers in the UK.

Workers in Greece tend to work more hours than the average European, 45.4 hours per week in comparison to an average of 38.4 hours in the EU27 Member States, according to research from Eurofound.

Currently broadband is provided by telecommunications operators to their subscribers via the same copper wires that have been used for telephony since its invention in the 19th century. However, new broadband services such as online gaming, high-definition TV and interactive applications require ever higher bandwidths that cannot be provided over copper infrastructure. To provide these services it is necessary to replace the copper infrastructure connecting the end-users to the local switches (the "local loop") by optical fibre. These new fibre-based access networks are referred to as "Next Generation Access networks" or "NGAs".

Fitch Ratings says today that a series of adverse shocks and mounting pressures in the banking sector have tilted risks more to the downside although, as signalled by their Stable Outlooks, Fitch does not currently expect to change Russia's Long-term foreign and local currency Issuer Default ratings of 'BBB+'.

The annual growth rate of the outstanding amount of debt securities issued by euro area residents increased from 6.8% in June 2008 to 7.0% in July. For the outstanding amount of quoted shares issued by euro area residents, the annual growth rate was 0.7% in July 2008, the same as in June.

The Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank (ECB), the Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank are announcing co-ordinated measures designed to address the continued elevated pressures in short-term US dollar funding markets.

The World Bank Group committed loans, grants and credits worth US$4.5 billion to support development across the East Asia Pacific region during fiscal year 2008. This was US$200 million more than the previous fiscal year, reflecting the increased support for a region that is weathering the global economic downturn relatively well.

U.S. retail sales for the 2008 winter holiday period and 2009 are expected to be weak while economic pressures continue to strain consumers' cash flow, according to Fitch Ratings in the latest edition of its "Retail Register" report.