After two consecutive years of eight percent growth, global purchases of IT goods and services will slow to five percent growth in 2007, reaching $1.55 trillion in sales according to a new report detailing worldwide technology spending and purchases by Forrester Research, Inc.
In the OECD area, consumer prices rose by 1.7 % in the year to October 2006, compared with 2.1% in the year to September 2006. On a monthly basis, the price level decreased by 0.2% between September and October 2006 after a decline of 0.1% between August and September 2006.
Total advertising expenditures in the first nine months of 2006 increased 4.0 percent to $108.4 billion as compared to the prior year period, according to data released today by TNS Media Intelligence, the leading provider of strategic advertising and marketing information. Total ad spending during the third quarter of 2006 was up by 3.8 percent versus 2005.
Cities are home to more than half the people living in OECD countries and almost 50 percent of the output and jobs of many nations is found in their largest city. Though most cities have higher economic growth, foreign investment and labour productivity than the rest of the country, they are also more polluted, crime-ridden and socially disparate. A new OECD report, Competitive Cities in the Global Economy gives case studies and policy recommendations to help cities, often the drivers of national economies, continue to thrive. The book also provides a strong statistical database on the world’s principal cities.
China will this year for the first time spend more on research and development (R&D) than Japan and so become the world’s second highest investor in R&D after the United States, according to OECD projections based on recent trends.
The Chicago Board of Trade, one of the world’s leading derivatives exchanges, today announced that volume for November reached a record 83,596,033 contracts, an increase of 38 percent over November 2005. November’s average daily volume (ADV) also set a new monthly record, with 3,980,763 contracts trading each day, up 38 percent from the same month last year. ADV on the Exchange’s e-cbot® electronic trading platform was 2,937,580 contracts in November, a 50 percent increase compared with November 2005.
The Chicago Board of Trade announced that the Exchange reached its highest daily trading volume in its 158-year history on November 29. Total Exchange volume was 7,791,833 contracts, surpassing the previous all-time record of 6,522,607 contracts set on August 29, 2006.
The New York Stock Exchange today released its weekly program-trading data submitted by its member firms. The report includes trading in all markets as reported to the NYSE for Nov. 20-24.
The US telecommunications markets continue to undergo significant transformation as technologies converge toward a triple play model of bundled voice, Internet and TV services.
Along with the trend of metropolis, urban area is expanding rapidly. Many boomtowns are emerging and under construction. This is expected to boost the demand of furniture decoration enormously. Wood furniture accounts for the majority of all furniture sold either in domestic market or in export products.
