Menu

On 30 August, it will become cheaper to make or receive calls while travelling in the EU. The price ceiling for roaming calls (the Eurotariff) introduced by the EU in 2007 will fall from €0.49 to €0.46 per minute (excluding VAT) for making a call and from €0.24 to €0.22 per minute (excluding VAT) for receiving a call while in another EU country.

Fitch Ratings says in a new report that the economic and credit outlook for the Emerging Europe (EE) region is worsening as it faces the combination of a global economic slowdown, strong inflationary pressures and fragile financing conditions, while many EE countries also have sizeable current account deficits (CADs).

The annual rate of growth of M3 decreased to 9.3% in July 2008, from 9.5% in June 2008. The three-month average of the annual growth rates of M3 over the period May 2008 - July 2008 declined to 9.6%, from 10.0% in the period April 2008 - June 2008.

On many counts, the youth labour market in Norway is performing very well. The unemployment rate among young people aged 16-24 was 7.3% in 2007, 6 percentage points below the OECD average and the employment rate was almost 12 percentage points above the OECD average.

Cooperation with the European film industry is in strong demand around the globe. The results of the first call for projects of a new EU initiative, the MEDIA International Preparatory Action, show a lot of interest from audiovisual professionals around the world in working with Europe's film and audiovisual sector.

Europe's venture capital industry recorded another dismal showing in the second quarter of 2008 with just 167 deals completed - the lowest quarterly total in at least nine years - and 858 million euro invested, a 35% drop from the 1.33 billion euro invested in 286 deals over the same period last year, according to Dow Jones VentureSource which released its Quarterly European Venture Capital Report. However, early stage rounds accounted for 44% of all deals done in Europe during the first half of the year, indicating that region may be nearing the bottom of its decline as more entrepreneurial companies are starting to enter the venture capital lifecycle.

The consumer climate for August was depressed further by the very subdued economic outlook. Even significantly lower crude oil prices did nothing to brighten the consumer mood. As a result, the indicator reflecting propensity to buy has continued to decline. Solely income expectations recovered after the sharp downturn in July.

Fitch Ratings says in a special report that the Baltic states face a challenging and uncertain 12 months as they undergo a rapid macroeconomic adjustment in a difficult global economic and financial environment. All three countries have Negative Outlooks on their Long-term foreign currency Issuer Default ratings (IDR) of 'A' for Estonia, 'BBB+' for Latvia and 'A' for Lithuania. The agency expects the Outlooks and ratings to be driven by the nature and cost of the adjustment underway in the Baltic economies.

The EU27 population is projected to increase from 495 million on 1 January 2008 to 521 million in 2035, and thereafter gradually decline to 506 million in 2060.

Russia is, with a population of over 140 million, a large attractive market as measured by the number of potential consumers. With a nominal GDP per capita of 6.854 USD in 2006, growing at almost 7% annually, consumers are able to make investments on a constantly increasing scale. The automotive market is one of the most eye-catching sectors to reflect these positive trends.