Europe's richest countries today faced pressure to step up cash support for developing nations after figures showed the first fall in global aid for 14 years.

The nation's builders saw new orders rise at the fastest rate in four-and-a-half years last month, a survey said today, further boosting hopes that the UK has dodged another recession.

The UK has slipped back into recession after the economy contracted in the first quarter of 2012, an influential think-tank warned today.

Developed nations are pulling out of the economic slide seen at the end of 2011, according to new data based on hundreds of millions of financial transactions.

Hopes that the UK might dodge another recession were boosted today as an influential forecaster revealed a positive shift in economic activity at the start of the year.

As global bodies gather in Marseilles to discuss water supplies, Sarah Morrison reports on the waste that will create a thirsty world by 2050

Moves to reintroduce more setting and streaming in UK  state schools are fuelling a “vicious cycle” of underperformance,  particularly amongst disadvantaged youngsters, a top-level international study warned yesterday.

Almost one in five young people in the UK are not educated to A-level standard, leaving the nation lagging behind countries such as Slovenia and Estonia.

Decisions that are being taken today to support investments that lock us into an old economic model will do little for future prosperity or growth.

Economic View

The global economic downturn prompted the International Energy Agency to slash its forecast for oil demand growth yesterday by more than a fifth for the year.

Changes to family and tax policies would boost the economy

More than 10,000 lives could be saved every year if the NHS were to outstrip average standards set internationally, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said today as he unveiled a new 60-step plan to boost patient outcomes.

The pay gap between the highest and lowest earners in the UK has grown more quickly than in any other high-income country since 1975, a report said today.