The European market for consumer electronics is going to shrink in 2009 — for the first time since the mid-nineties, says German IT industry association Bitkom. The reason, however, is not the economy crisis.

Confidence is beginning to return to UK and mainland European businesses but it has still not reached levels seen in the autumn last year, according to a quarterly business survey released on Tuesday.

Nearly 5,000 firms in England and Wales went into liquidation and a record number of people succumbed to insolvency in the first three months of 2009, as the deepening recession claimed more victims.

Consumers felt more confident about the economy last month than at any time since the September failure of Lehman Brothers that pushed global banking to the brink of collapse, a survey showed Friday.

Asia's governments must spend more on social safety nets and reduce their reliance on export-driven growth as they grapple with an economic meltdown that will keep tens of millions trapped in poverty, finance officials said Sunday.

Industrial output in Japan rose in March for the first time in six months, according to government figures. Production rose by 1.6% in March compared with February, after months of dramatic decline.

Things are looking up for Xugong Group, China's largest heavy machinery maker. Driven by Beijing's five-month-old US$586 billion fiscal stimulus, sales of its bulldozers, wheel loaders, and construction cranes reached an all-time high in March, a spokesman says.

Instead of an expected downturn, Asia's fourth-largest economy squeaked out slight first-quarter GDP growth of 0.1 percent, rather than contracting by .2 percent as expected, according to the Bank of Korea.

Spain's unemployment rate hit 17.4% at the end of March, figures have shown, with the jobless total now having doubled over the past 12 months."It is a terrible figure," Octavio Granado, secretary of state for social security told state television.

Innovation is taking a hit these days, with some people even blaming it for the financial market crash. But while most companies are trying to cut costs by eliminating staff and shutting down operations, some are finding new ways to innovate and grow by predicting—and quickly readying themselves for—emerging markets.

Signs that a giant fiscal stimulus is starting to work in China. However, China still needs to find a new engine for future growth. Reforms to improve health care and the social safety net will take many years to encourage people to save less.

As tech giants IBM, Yahoo, Apple and Microsoft report earnings this week, analysts say they expect headwinds and will look for how the companies plan to grow when the economy recovers.

US consumers have more confidence in the US economy than they have had since the sudden collapse of Lehman Brothers in September, which caused the near-implosion of the global banking system, a survey showed on Friday.

Excluding China, which will announce first-quarter GDP figures later this week, the World Bank now expects developing countries in the region to grow by 1.2% in 2009, down from an estimate of 4.8% in 2008.

Singapore's economy shrank by 19.7% in the first quarter of 2009 compared with the previous three months, its biggest quarterly contraction on record.

It wasn't long ago that Silicon Valley's tech industry, whose operations and customers span the planet, was confident its global reach would help it escape the worst of the deep American recession. But that hasn't happened. Instead, the valley's top companies collectively are suffering the biggest slump since the dot-com bust.

Oil slipped under US$50 a barrel on Tuesday on forecasts for softer 2009 global petroleum demand and for a weekly build in US crude supplies.

China's exports increased last month, but still were down 17% year-on-year, according to figures released by the Chinese government. Imports to China dropped 25% on year to US$72 billion.

Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso announced a historic US$150 billion stimulus package Friday aimed to turn around the recession in the world's second-largest economy.

The 10 countries, including China and Thailand, will grow by 5.3% this year, half of the growth seen in 2007, the World Bank said in a report.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Wednesday the upcoming budget will contain environmental measures to aid recovery from recession, including creating thousands of "green" jobs.

A quarter of the world's companies, and 40% in the US, plan to freeze salaries this year, but employees in South America and India can look forward to robust rises, a global survey shows on Tuesday.

Japan's second lost decade holds worrying lessons for other rich economies. Its large fiscal stimulus succeeded in preventing a depression in the 1990s after its bubble burst—and others are surely correct to follow today. But Japan's failure to spur a strong domestic recovery a decade later suggests that America and Europe may also have a long, hard journey ahead.

Congressional Democrats overwhelmingly embraced President Obama's ambitious and expensive agenda for the nation yesterday (April 2), endorsing a US$3.5 trillion spending plan that sets the stage for the president to pursue his most far-reaching priorities.

A key index of consumer confidence rebounded slightly in March, but it held near historic lows as consumers remained uneasy about the economy and the labor market.

As promoted by Goldman Sachs in 2001, this approach focuses on Brazil, Russia, India and China. While their stock markets were as battered as those in North America and Europe in 2008, most of them may recover faster and offer sustained growth.

As world leaders assemble in London for the Group of 20 summit this week, the latest evidence of the severity of the economic crisis emerged from Asia on Wednesday (April 1).

Japan's unemployment rate has risen to a three-year high as companies continue to slash jobs.

Growth in Vietnam stumbled to its slowest rate in a decade in the first quarter, falling to 3.1% year-on-year as its export-driven economy is strangled by tumbling global demand and inward investment.

"We'll recover from this recession, but it will take time, it will take patience, and it will take an understanding that, when we all work together, when each of us looks beyond our own short-term interest to the wider set of obligations we have towards each other, that's when we succeed..."

Seoul Semiconductor will supply 300 thousand pieces of LED for ‘LED Farming Demonstration Project’ of Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry of Japan. LED light source for farming is getting popular for energy saving and improvement of product quality. Competitive power of Seoul Semiconductor and possibility of its market expansion with diversified items in the Japanese market have been confirmed.

The world economy is set to shrink by between 0.5% and 1.0% in 2009, the first global contraction in 60 years. In its gloomiest forecast yet, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says that developed countries will suffer a "deep recession".

Singapore's exports fell for a 10th month in February, as a collapse in global demand for electronics and pharmaceuticals extended the longest slump in the nation's overseas sales since 2002.

Japanese companies have cut spending on research equipment by far more than their US counterparts in response to the global slump, according to the president of Shimadzu, the scientific instrument maker.

The next phase of the world's economic downturn is taking shape: a global jobs crisis. How governments react will shape labour markets for years to come.

"We'll see the recession coming to an end probably this year," Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said. "We'll see recovery beginning next year."

Government's aggressive actions should reinforce some of the economy's normal mechanisms for recovery. As pent-up demand builds, so will the pressure for more spending.

The financial crisis is taking its toll on the world's richest people, wiping 332 names off Forbes magazine's "rich list" of world billionaires.