The United States, Europe, China and South Korea lead global "green" spending plans after committing about $500 billion to boost low-carbon technologies and protect the environment, under wider plans to boost the global economy. Green spend accounts for about 15 percent of total economic stimulus cash of $3 trillion, according to HSBC in a report

The European Central Bank kept interest rates on hold at a record low on Thursday as it waits to see the impact of efforts so far to revive the economy and credit flows. All 75 economists in a Reuters poll last week had expected the ECB to keep the main policy rate at 1.0 percent

The European Central Bank and Bank of England both kept interest rates unchanged on Thursday but the latter said it would pump more money into the UK economy by buying bonds, driving sterling lower. Equity markets, meanwhile, were carrying on with their five month rally, driven higher by positive earnings news. Wall Street looked set

The Bank of England took a far bigger step than expected to boost Britain's recession-hit economy on Thursday, expanding its quantitative easing programme to 175 billion pounds from 125 billion. The central bank also decided at its monthly meeting to leave interest rates at a record low 0.5 percent. The QE decision enables the central

The European Central Bank kept its main refinancing rate unchanged at a record low of 1.0 percent on Thursday, as expected by economists. Markets are now turning their attention to President Jean-Claude Trichet's news conference at 1230 GMT, when he will explain the decision and may sound a slightly more upbeat tone on prospects for

British construction orders rose 18 percent in the second quarter of 2009 compared with the previous three months, but were still down 21 percent on the year, official data showed on Thursday. The Office for National Statistics said private housing orders rose 25 percent over the quarter, but fell 33 percent on the year. Infrastructure

The European Central Bank and Bank of England appeared set on Thursday to keep interest rates unchanged, prompting equity investors to extend their five-month rally but keeping currency and bond markets edgy. The dollar was steady against the euro and Britain's pound. Both central banks will announce their latest monetary policy decision later in the

Barclays Plc shareholders are expected to comfortably approve the British bank's sale of asset manager Barclays Global Investors to BlackRock when they vote on the $13.5 billion deal on Thursday. The bank will also face protests from staff outside the meeting about its plan to close its final salary pension scheme for British staff in