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Women are 20% less likely than men to have a paid job in OECD countries and they earn on average 17% less than men, according to the latest edition of OECD’s Employment Outlook. At least 30% of the gap in wages and 8% of the gap in employment rates result from discriminatory practices in the labour market.

Fitch Ratings says continuous robust new cars sales growth in several emerging markets, including Russia, India, China, Brazil (BRIC countries) and Argentina, mitigates poor demand in European manufacturers' domestic markets. Together with the rapid development of low-cost cars, the major move of car manufacturers to emerging regions is one of the main trends in the auto industry.

Trade relations between the EU and the neighbouring Southern Mediterranean (MED) countries are governed by the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (also referred to as the Barcelona Process), which was launched in November 1995. The partner countries are Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and the Palestinian Authority, as well as Turkey.

Consumer prices in the OECD area rose by 3.9% in the year to May 2008, compared with 3.5% in the year to April 2008. This constitutes the highest inflation rate since June 2001. On a monthly basis, the price level rose by 0.7% in May, compared with 0.5% in April.

According to MENA Economic Prospects and Developments 2008, the GDP of the MENA region grew by 5.7 percent in 2007, marking the fifth year in a row that average growth was above 5 percent. While this is impressive in relation to past performance, it is lower than growth achieved in most other parts of the developing world. To keep up in an increasingly competitive global environment, the region will have to continue to make structural reforms in business climate, trade policy and governance.

A new analysis of the mobile payments opportunity forecasts that the gross transaction value of payments made via mobile phone for digital goods (such as music, tickets and games) and physical goods (typically gifts and books) will exceed $300bn globally by 2013.

As of today, aviation relations between the European Community and the United States will be further strengthened through an agreement on aviation safety. Thanks to the mutual recognition of aviation safety certificates, the agreement will result in better harmonised safety systems on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as less cumbersome technical and administrative procedures for the recognition of certificates. It is expected that this will entail further improvement in safety levels and reduce costs by several millions of euros every year for European and US manufacturers alike. These savings should in turn be reflected in fares for passengers.

Fitch Ratings says in its semi-annual Sovereign Review that the economic and credit outlook for emerging market economies is deteriorating, driven primarily by rapidly rising inflation.

Despite rising costs and financial market turmoil, high net worth individuals (HNWIs) and ultra-high net worth individuals (Ultra-HNWIs) last year spent considerable amounts of their wealth on investments of passion – tangible luxury items, such as fine art, luxury automobiles, private yachts, sports teams, jewelry, and intangible passion investments, such as "live the dream" experiential vacations, according to the 12th annual World Wealth Report, issued Tuesday, June 24 by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini.

Agricultural Policies in OECD Countries: Monitoring and Evaluation says current policies are limiting the ability of farmers to respond to market signals, to become more competitive and innovative, and thus contribute to improving the global food situation.