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The European Commission has published a first study on the prices, costs and volumes for trading and post-trading of securities in the EU, carried out by Oxera Consulting Ltd. This study, which will be renewed, allows the Commission to monitor how prices and costs evolve. In this way, the Commission will be able to better evaluate the effect of its policies in this area and to base future policies on solid evidence.

The annual growth rate of the outstanding amount of debt securities issued by euro area residents was 12.0% in May 2009, compared with 12.1% in April. For the outstanding amount of quoted shares issued by euro area residents, the annual growth rate increased from 1.7% in April 2009 to 2.0% in May.

Online recruiting efforts among German organisations continued to trend lower during the second quarter amid sustained layoffs and hiring freezes. Mirroring the German economy’s dependence on global trade and commerce, employer demand weakened most in export-driven logistics sector, with related heavy industries also reporting fewer online opportunities. Nevertheless the Monster Employment Index in Germany is trending better than the European Index average.

Euro area annual inflation was -0.1% in June 2009, down from 0.0% in May. A year earlier the rate was 4.0%. Monthly inflation was 0.2% in June 2009.

While the overall Index continued its decreasing trend, individual country results were mixed. Germany, Italy and the Netherlands reported sustained declines, whereas modest increases were seen in Belgium and the UK. Year-on-year, however, all EU markets remained in the red, reflecting the broad slowdown in hiring activity across the continent. The Netherlands is now showing the steepest annual rate of decline of all major EU markets.

The Monster Employment Index UK grew by one point (one percent) in June, showing some recovery from the three point (two percent) dip in May. The recent flatness in online job availability indicates that demand for workers has stabilised following last year’s dramatic fall. While the Index has dropped a sizeable 67 points (38 percent) year-on-year, the pace of deterioration has remained largely steady since February.

In May 2009 compared with April 2009, seasonally adjusted industrial production grew by 0.5% in the euro area (EA16) and by 0.1% in the EU27. In April production fell by 1.4% and 0.8% respectively. In May 2009 compared with May 2008, industrial production declined by 17.0% in the euro area and by 15.9% in the EU27.

The European Commission and industry announced the first round of research calls for proposals injecting €268million in three key market areas in order to trigger economic recovery and make it more sustainable and knowledge-based. A total of €3.2 billion has been earmarked for European public-private partnerships (PPPs) dedicated to develop new technologies in manufacturing, construction and the automotive sectors. These collaborations between the Commission and the industry will foster global competitiveness for European businesses, bring down the excessive energy consumption of Europe's buildings that make up one-third of EU CO 2 emissions, and develop new and sustainable forms of road transport.

The European Commission has put forward a further revision of EU rules on capital requirements for banks that is designed to tighten up the way in which banks assess the risks connected with their trading book; impose higher capital requirements for re-securitisations; increase market confidence through stronger disclosure requirements for securitisation exposures; and require banks to have sound remuneration practices that do not encourage or reward excessive risk-taking.

In the first half of 2009 a total of 413,000 counterfeit euro banknotes were withdrawn from circulation. This is an increase of around 17% on the quantity recovered in the previous six months.