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Some countries are hard-hit, like Portugal, Greece, and Italy in the case of textiles, but most countries actually come out ahead. So is rising Chinese productivity good? To quote Sam Shakusky, who’s to say? Portuguese workers certainly don’t seem to win from an increase in textile productivity. But most European workers actually come out ahead. What’s more, productivity growth will also almost certainly lead to rising wages in China, lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and raising the standard of living considerably in the world’s largest country. That may be the most important factor here.

European Union officials pushed on Saturday to accelerate moves to stem the bloc's long debt crisis as Italian premier Mario Monti warned that economic suffering was fuelling divisive nationalism on the continent.

China has approved an estimated $156 billion in new infrastructure projects in recent days, giving markets a boost, even as economists are fretting that the country is behind the curve in responding to the economic slowdown.

The Swiss economy has long appeared to be surprisingly resilient to the economic downturn across Europe, but the latest statistics released Tuesday showed that Switzerland is slowing down together with the rest of Europe. After a strong first quarter, the economy contracted in the second because of falling exports to the euro zone, the Alpine country's biggest trade partner. Compared with a year earlier, the Swiss economy still managed to expand at a 0.5% pace, but it contracted 0.1% from the first quarter.

Spanish jobless claims rose at the slowest pace in six years in August, the country's labor ministry said, a sign that surging unemployment in the euro zone's fourth-largest economy is leveling off.

China’s manufacturing sector shrunk in August for the first time in nine months, according to government data released over the weekend, in yet another sign that the Chinese economy is slowing just as its leaders prepare for a delicate power transfer this fall.

Chancellor George Osborne says a third runway at Heathrow airport could be an option as he vows to "do more" to boost economic growth.

The Spanish economy is falling deeper into recession and depositors are pulling their money out of the banks, figures published on Tuesday showed, while the country's most economically important region, Catalonia, said it needed a major rescue from Madrid.

The U.K. economy isn't as deeply in recession as thought, revised official figures showed, though analysts cautioned its economy in still in dire straits.

China won’t rescue the world economy this year as it has throughout the financial crisis period that started in 2008. The country’s latest economic data shows what many economists have been saying about the world’s second largest economy: be prepared to be disappointed.