THE NEWS WRAP: OECD warns major economies face slowdown, including China

Most of the world’s major economies are facing a slowdown in economic growth, including emerging powerhouses Russia, China and India, according to a sobering new report.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said that of the 33 leading economies, only the UK is showing any sort of improvement in its growth rate.

“Composite leading indicators … continue to point to an easing of economic activity in most major OECD economies and slowdowns in most major non-OECD economies,” said the OECD report.

Google hit by record fine

Google has agreed to pay the largest ever fine imposed on a single company following claims that it invaded the privacy of users of Apple’s Safari browser.

The US Federal Trade Commission has ordered the search engine giant to pay $22.5 million for monitoring Safari users who selected the “do not track” privacy option.

However, Google does not have to admit wrongdoing as part of the fine.

Pinterest opens up access to all

Businesses may look to utilise Pinterest in greater numbers after the social networking service relaxed its rules about who can sign up.

Previously, people needed invites in order to “pin” content to the website’s virtual pin boards. Pinterest, which recorded 31.2 million users in June, up from 1.2 million visitors in the same month last year, will now be open to everyone.

Overnight

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 10.45 points, or 0.08%, to 13,165.19. The US dollar was down to US105.81 cents.