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The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for Spain increased 0.2 percent and The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index® (CEI) decreased 0.1 percent in April.

Hourly labour costs in the euro area (EA16) rose by 2.1% in the year up to the first quarter of 2010, compared with 1.7% for the previous quarter. In the EU27, the annual rise was 2.2% up to the first quarter of 2010, compared with 2.0% for the previous quarter.

Euro area annual inflation was 1.6% in May 2010, up from 1.5% in April. A year earlier the rate was 0.0%. Monthly inflation was 0.1% in May 2010.

Plans for a strong, common EU agricultural policy, equipped to deliver public goods such as climate change reduction, food security and food quality, based on a fair support system and reformed to improve competitiveness and returns to farmers were set out by the Agriculture Committee.

The number of persons employed in the euro area (EA16) was stable in the first quarter of 2010 compared with the previous quarter, according to national accounts estimates published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. In the same period, the number of persons employed in the EU27 decreased by 0.2% (455 000 persons). In the fourth quarter of 2009, employment declined by 0.2% in the euro area and by 0.3% in the EU27. These figures are seasonally adjusted.

The first estimate for the euro area (EA16) trade balance with the rest of the world in April 2010 gave a 1.8 billion euro surplus, compared with +2.6 bn in April 2009. The March 2010 balance was +4.5 bn, compared with +1.5 bn in March 2009. In April 2010 compared with March 2010, seasonally adjusted exports fell by 2.4% and imports by 3.5%.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for the U.K. increased 0.6 percent, and The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index® (CEI) remained unchanged in April.

In April 2010 compared with March 2010, seasonally adjusted industrial production grew by 0.8% in the euro area (EA16) and by 0.5% in the EU27. In March production increased by 1.5% and 1.4% respectively.

With the onset of the economic crisis in 2008, a very positive development of small and medium enterprises (SME) has come to a halt. Between 2002 and 2008, SMEs in the EU turned out to be the most important European Economy job engine. With 9.4 million jobs created between 2002 and 2008 SMEs outperformed large firms. This is in sharp contrast to an estimated loss of 3.25 million jobs in the SME sector over 2009 and 2010 further to the annual SME report. For each EU Member State and 10 more countries, selected key facts describing the national SME sector are provided, such as number of SMEs and employment creation. They also underline that Member States have undertaken many relevant policy actions, but much more needs to be done to ensure that the guidelines set by the Small Business Act (SBA) are fully implemented.

The annual growth rate of the outstanding amount of debt securities issued by euro area residents decreased from 6.0% in March 2010 to 5.7% in April. For the outstanding amount of quoted shares issued by euro area residents, the annual growth rate was 2.7% in April 2010, compared with 2.8% in March.