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Mobile service revenues fell for the first time in Eastern Europe in Q3 2009, as the global recession continues to cast a shadow over operator results. The new Strategy Analytics report, "Wireless Operator Performance Benchmarking, Q3 2009," found that only the Asia-Pacific region managed to post a small recovery and increase revenue growth rates.

In the third quarter of 2009, the euro area investment fund sector increased by 10.6% as compared to the second quarter, from EUR 4.3 to 4.7 trillion. This development mainly resulted from sizeable increases in the prices of assets held by the investment funds and to a somewhat lesser extent from their large net sales of shares or units (net inflows due to transactions).

The number of persons employed in the euro area (EA16) fell by 0.5% (712 000 persons) in the third quarter of 2009 compared with the previous quarter, according to national accounts estimates published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities. In the same period, the number of persons employed in the EU27 also decreased by 0.5% (1 019 000 persons). In the second quarter of 2009, employment declined by 0.5% in the euro area and by 0.6% in the EU27. These figures are seasonally adjusted.

In October 2009 compared with September 2009, seasonally adjusted industrial production fell by 0.6% in the euro area (EA16) and by 0.7% in the EU27. In September production increased by 0.2% and 0.1% respectively.

The annual growth rate of the outstanding amount of debt securities issued by euro area residents decreased from 12.0% in September 2009 to 11.0% in October. For the outstanding amount of quoted shares issued by euro area residents, the annual growth rate was 2.7% in October 2009, compared with 2.8% in September.

Young people make up a significant proportion of the EU population: on 1 January 2009, there were 95 million persons aged 15 to 29 in the EU27, almost a fifth of the total population. Statistics on young people confirm that they have their own characteristics compared to the older generation, but also reveal differences in their behaviour between Member States.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index™ (LEI) for the U.K. increased 1.0 percent, and The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index™ (CEI) increased 0.1 percent in October.

Fitch Ratings says in a new report that the Baltic countries' sovereign ratings remain under downward pressure, with Latvia ('BB+'/Negative) and Lithuania ('BBB'/Negative) more at risk of negative rating actions than Estonia ('BBB+'/Negative).

Healthcare in Europe is facing major challenges in both structural reform and unavailability of resources as the region's working population is far lower in comparison to those of 'non-working' age. This calls for the introduction of new schemes in healthcare that would enable Europe to deal with issues pertaining to the growing ageing population. The involvement of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in healthcare is evident from the fact that in recent years, the number of Internet users for health purposes has increased considerably. This is basically in the form of purchasing health products and services, and also for communicating with peers and healthcare professionals.

The European Commission's latest State Aid Scoreboard shows the financial crisis multiplied the overall aid volume from € 66.5 billion or 0.52% of the EU-27 GDP in 2007 to € 279.6 billion or 2.2% of GDP in 2008. Crisis measures excluded, total aid stood in 2008 at € 67.4 billion or 0.54% of GDP. Timely and coordinated action by Member States and the Commission contributed to safeguarding financial stability.