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Global consumer confidence cautiously edged up one index point to 93 in the second quarter as confidence increases in booming Asian markets were offset by European consumers’ growing concerns of an escalating debt crisis, which battered confidence levels in Spain, Italy and France, according to the latest edition of the Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Index. Consumer confidence rose two points in the U.S. in Q2 to 87, where the world’s largest economy continued on course for a slow, but steady climb out of the recession. Consumer Confidence Index levels above and below a baseline of 100 indicate degrees of optimism and pessimism.

The OECD area unemployment rate was steady at 8.1% in May, unchanged for the third consecutive month. The Euro area unemployment rate was also stable at 9.9% for the third consecutive month.

International migration fell in 2009, reflecting lower demand for workers in OECD countries for the second consecutive year after a decade of growth, according to a new OECD report.

Composite leading indicators (CLIs) designed to anticipate turning points in economic activity relative to trend, point to a slowdown in most major economies for May 2011.

The gap between the rich and the poor can be as wide within countries as across countries, with wealth and services generally concentrated in cities. In part this reflects differences in the performance of regions, as across OECD countries 10% of regions are responsible for some 40% of national GDP and employment.

American consumers are facing the double whammy of still feeling the effects of recession even as rising costs fuel inflationary worries. They are not alone in the world, though, according to GfK Roper Consulting's 2011 Mood of the World® Report, which is based on a global survey of more than 32,000 consumers, ages 15 and older in 25 countries.

Real GDP in the OECD area grew by 0.5% in the first quarter of 2011. Although private consumption remained the main driver of growth in the OECD as a whole, its contribution to growth fell in nearly all major economies. At 0.2 percentage point, private consumption’s contribution to OECD growth fell to its lowest level since the second quarter of 2009. The fall in the contribution from private consumption was offset by a large swing in the contribution from inventories.

Consumer prices in the OECD area rose by 3.2% in the year to May 2011, compared with 2.9% in April - the highest rate since October 2008. This increase was mainly driven by a sharp acceleration of inflation in Canada (to 3.7% in May, up from 3.3% in April) and the United States (to 3.6%, up from 3.2%) with high food and energy prices being the main drivers.

Health spending continues to rise faster than economic growth in most OECD countries, maintaining a trend observed since the 1970s. Health spending reached 9.5% of GDP on average in 2009, the most recent year for which figures are available, up from 8.8% in 2008, according to OECD Health Data 2011.

Worldwide IT spending is on pace to grow 7.1 percent in 2011, according to the latest quarterly spending outlook by Gartner, Inc. Analysts have revised overall IT forecast spending growth in U.S. dollar terms, up from their first quarter update, when they projected 5.6 percent growth for 2011.