Global Economic Prospects 2010: The global economic recovery that is now underway will slow later this year as the impact of fiscal stimulus wanes, according to a new report from the World Bank. Financial markets remain troubled and private sector demand lags amid high unemployment. The report predicts that the fallout from the crisis will change the landscape for finance and growth over the next 10 years.

Markets news on stocks, currencies and oil.

US housing starts fell more than expected in December, while building permits unexpectedly jumped, signaling bad weather may have kept builders away from worksites. Work began on 557,000 houses at an annual rate, down 4 percent from November, figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington. Permits, a sign of future construction, climbed to the highest level in a year.

Average national house prices in Ireland fell by 18.5% in 2009 according to the permanent tsb / ESRI House Price Index end of year review published today. The index also reveals that prices [average national] declined 3.6% in December. This compares to reductions in November (-3.1%), October (-1.8%) and September 2009 (-1.1%). There has been a 31.5% dip since peak in February 2007 and maybe more.

Markets news on stocks, currencies and commodities; UK jobless benefit claims fell in December the most since early 2007; IMF's Strauss-Khan says China's yuan is overvalued; IBM raises 2010 earnings forecast.

Global Productivity 2010: The output of employees in advanced economies fell in 2009 for the first time in more than 40 years, as the global economic crisis hit companies' output.

Principal news stories from the Irish Independent, Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Financial Times and New York Times.

We have often made the point that Ireland is a place of limited or no accountability where the buck appears to stop nowhere. On Tuesday, we had announcements on reports to be made as part of an Irish banking inquiry and a High Court Inspector's report on the DCC insider trading case was also published. There is a connection between the two.  As for the banking inquiry, there will no doubt be a big cast of Pontius Pilates.

By a decisive 52%-47% margin, Scott Brown, a little-known Republican state senator in Massachusetts, won the seat of the late Edward Kennedy, in a stunning rebuke to President Obama and the Democrats in Congress.

Global forest cover shrank between 1990 and 2005 by three per cent. That corresponds to an average annual loss of 0.2 per cent or 20,000 hectares a day. As an examination of the Ifo Institute shows, the development of forested areas is regionally quite different. A particularly large amount of forest area has been cleared in recent years in tropical countries especially Brazil, Indonesia and Sudan.

Global investor risk appetite is at a four-year high as cash reserves are being put to work across the equity markets, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Survey of Fund Managers for January. The survey found that Japanese equities are the most undervalued in the world.

Markets news on stocks, currencies and oil; The Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan plans to outline  proposals in the Dáil for an inquiry into the Irish banking crisis. Meanwhile, a High Court report into DCC, the energy and business services conglomerate, and transactions linked to insider dealing in Fyffes shares, has found that any breaches of company law which occurred "were not made intentionally."

Goodbody Stockbrokers chief economist, Dermot O'Leary, says new Irish housing completions may fall below 10,00 in 2011, compared with almost 90,000 in 2006 - - the craziest year of the Irish property bubble. Meanwhile, the quarterly EBS / DKM Affordability Index released today shows that the average first time buyer working couple is paying just 13.4% of their joint income to service their mortgage compared with 26% in December 2006, representing almost a 50% improvement in the past 3 years.

Citigroup, the US bank that is 27% owned by the Treasury Department, today reported a $7.6 billion loss on costs to exit the government’s bailout program.

Markets news on stocks, currencies and commodities; The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment for Germany fell by 3.2 points in January 2010. The indicator now stands at 47.2 points after 50.4 points in the previous month. This value is still well above the indicator's historical average of 27.1 points. Meanwhile, UK confectioner Cadbury today agreed to a sweetened takeover deal with US food giant Kraft valued at 840 pence per share or £11.5 billion sterling, the two companies said.

The EU Commission has requested that pending its assessment of the Bank of Ireland's restructuring plan (which is required in compliance with EU State aid rules), that the bank should suspend coupon payments on its Tier 1 and Upper Tier 2 capital securities unless under a binding legal obligation to do so.

Irish Economy:  Good news at last as economists announce a new dawn after a winter of gloom. Lower costs are already "kickstarting growth" and from behind a desk, increasing shares in export markets have already been discerned from recent cost reductions. However, a European Central Bank (ECB) executive director on Monday, said such people are delusionists.

Principal news stories from the Irish Independent, Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Financial Times and New York Times.

Rich countries face years of  belt-tightening to reduce high debt levels, which will result in slow growth over much of the current decade, according to a new study. Deleveraging following crises are painful, lasting six to seven years on average, reducing the ratio of total debt to GDP (gross domestic product) by 25 percent.

The French and German governments on Monday raised their economic growth forecasts for 2010, signalling a continued but muted recovery in the Eurozone’s two biggest economies.