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The annual growth rate of M3 decreased to 2.0% in April 2011, from 2.3% in March 2011. The threemonth average of the annual growth rates of M3 over the period February 2011 - April 2011 stood at 2.1%, compared with 2.0% in the period January 2011 - March 2011.

The euro area (EA17) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 9.9% in April 2011, unchanged compared with March. It was 10.2% in April 2010. The EU27 unemployment rate was 9.4% in April, compared with 9.5% in March. It was 9.7% in April 2010.

comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, released data from the comScore MobiLens service which showed that 20 million mobile users across the five leading European markets (UK, France, Spain, Germany and Italy), representing 8.5 percent of mobile subscribers in these markets, accessed their bank account via a mobile phone in March 2011. Since August 2010, the first month this activity has been measured in MobiLens, there has been a 15.4 percent rise in mobile bankers which has been largely driven by smartphone users who accounted for 70 percent of the mobile banking market in March 2011. Among Smartphone owners the number of banking users has risen by 40 percent since August 2010.

Banks’ relationships with their customers in the UK and Ireland are under increasing pressure several years after the financial crisis began – with loyalty, satisfaction levels and behavioral patterns posing new challenges, according to Accenture research.

Despite economic pressures on both auto manufacturers and consumers, vehicle ownership satisfaction in the UK has increased from 2010, with improvement occurring across all aspects of the ownership experience, according to the J.D. Power and Associates/What Car? 2011 UK Vehicle Ownership Satisfaction Study (VOSS)(SM).

Between 2000 and 2010, EU27 exports of goods to Japan fell slightly in value from 45 bn euro to 44 bn, and EU27 imports from Japan decreased by 30%, from 92 bn to 65 bn. As a result, the EU27 deficit in trade with Japan decreased from 47 bn in 2000 to 21 bn in 2010 and the share of Japan in the EU27's total external trade in goods fell. In 2010, Japan accounted for 3% of EU27 exports and 4% of EU27 imports, and was the EU27's sixth most important trading partner.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index®(LEI) for the Euro Area increased 0.4 percent in April to 109.0 (2004 = 100), following a 0.5 percent decrease in March and a 0.7 percent increase in February.

In March 2011 compared with February 2011, the euro area (EA17) industrial new orders index fell by 1.8%. In February the index grew by 0.5%. In the EU27, new orders decreased by 1.9% in March 2011, after a rise of 1.0% in February. Excluding ships, railway & aerospace equipment, for which changes tend to be more volatile, industrial new orders decreased by 1.1% in the euro area and by 1.2% in the EU27.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for Germany remained unchanged and The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index® (CEI) decreased 0.1 percent in March.

Before the end of 2011, the EU should pledge to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2020 (from 1990 levels), says a resolution voted by the Environment Committee on Tuesday. Limited scope for offsets should be allowed, but a 25% reduction should be achieved domestically, say MEPs. This would create millions of additional jobs in the EU and yield other economic benefits, they add.