Reuters - Chinese consumers will pay only 1 percent more for goods and services in 2006 as overcapacity pushes inflation down from last year's 1.8 percent, government and university researchers said in a report published on Sunday.

AP - Construction spending rose to a record level in February as home building hit an all-time high despite a weakening in home sales, the government said Monday.

Reuters - Planned layoffs fell 26 percent in March from February -- the lowest level in 11 months, according to a report released on Tuesday.

Reuters - Business activity in the vast U.S. services sector picked up in March, beating expectations and pointing to solid momentum across most of the economy, a report showed on Wednesday.

AP - The number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits fell for a third straight week, providing further evidence of a strong job market.

Reuters - U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow on Friday said he expects Congress to reach a compromise that will extend tax cuts when members return from a two-week Easter break.

Reuters - China must do more to stimulate consumption and tweak investment policies if it wants domestic purchases of foreign currencies to trim its swollen foreign exchange reserves, an official paper said on Saturday.

Reuters - The U.S. economy bounced back in the first quarter but growth will slow through 2006 as the housing market cools and consumers become a little more cautious, a survey of top forecasters showed on Monday.

Reuters - World financial markets have strengthened but cyclical challenges are emerging from the prospect of higher interest rates and an unwinding of global imbalances, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.

AP - America's trade deficit showed a bigger-than-expected improvement in February as the politically sensitive imbalance with China dropped to the lowest level in nearly a year.

Reuters - U.S. business inventories were unexpectedly flat in February as a drop in stocks of cars and parts offset a rise in wholesale inventories, data released by the Commerce Department showed on Thursday.

AP - China's Cabinet called for new measures Friday to clamp down on investment and bank lending to head off signs that the country's breakneck economy may be overheating.

AP - Japan's economy is logging its second-longest expansion since the end of World War II, the country's economy minister said Sunday in the latest in a stream of optimistic forecasts.

AP - Chinese President Hu Jintao announced Sunday that China's economy grew faster than expected in the first quarter of the year, heightening concerns that the breakneck expansion could spark inflation and drain environmental resources.

AP - Chinese leaders who say its booming economy is growing too fast want to cut spending on energy-guzzling factories and other wasteful projects, rather than slow its overall expansion, economists said Monday.

Reuters - Please read in 4th paragraph ... The rise in energy prices reflected a 9.1 percent jump ... instead of ... The decline in energy prices came despite a 9.1 percent jump ...

AP - China's investments in construction, factory equipment and other fixed assets rose 27.7 percent in the first quarter compared to the same period in 2005, a state-run newspaper reported Wednesday, citing an official at the country's main planning agency.

AP - China's sizzling economy grew by 10.2 percent in first quarter from the same quarter last year, overshooting it official target, but inflation stayed low and growth didn't appear to be dangerously fast, the government said Thursday.

Reuters - Chinese producers of steel, chemical fibers and petrochemicals all recorded falling profits in the first three months of 2006, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Saturday.

AP - French business sentiment rose to a five-year high in April, official statistics agency Insee said Monday, despite the government's withdrawal of labor reforms in the face of angry student protests.

Reuters - The pace of existing home sales in the United States picked up by 0.3 percent in March, defying expectations for a slowdown, due to increased buying in some less expensive markets and in part to warm weather, a trade group said on Tuesday.

AP - German consumer confidence is rising to its highest level in nearly five years as optimism about the outlook for Europe's biggest economy eases a chronic unwillingness to spend, a closely watched survey showed Wednesday.

AP - Leading German economists raised their growth forecast for this year to 1.8 percent on Thursday, citing strong exports and long-awaited signs of higher consumer spending, but warned that growth will slow again in 2007.

AP - The German government raised its growth forecast for this year to 1.6 percent from 1.4 percent on Friday but remained less optimistic than many private economists.

AFP - Latin American immigrant groups in the United States have called for a major one day strike and school boycott as part of a campaign for immigration reform.