Sao Paulo - Unemployment in Brazil dropped to 14.1 per cent in September, its lowest level for that month since 1998, the trade- union research institute Dieese said Wednesday in Sao Paulo.

According to Dieese, unemployment in September in the six metropolitan regions that were studied - Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Recife, Salvador de Bahia and Brasilia - fell by 0.4 percentage points in relation to August.

With the financial crisis weighing on American household budgets and the US consumer appearing to be in a foul mood, the effects on investors and the economy are likely to be harsh. The Conference Board, a New York-based business research group, said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index plummeted to 38 in October from an upwardly revised reading of 61.4 in September. This decline brings the index to its lowest level since its inception in 1967.

Washington - The US Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 0.5 percentage points to 1 per cent on Wednesday to the lowest level since June 2004 in an effort to keep the US economy out of a prolonged recession.

The US central bank acknowledged that economic activity had "slowed markedly," in a statement from the Fed's board of governors. Turmoil in financial markets had intensified and further restricted the availability of credit to both households and businesses, the Fed said.

New York - The poor and developing countries who make up most of the UN General Assembly will get a chance on Thursday to face off against rich countries in a debate on the global financial crisis.

One target is the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Under the leadership of a former priest and foreign minister of Nicaragua's Sandinista government that fought the US in the 1980s, the assembly will demand a radical reform of those two institutions created at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in the 1940s to help countries recover from the devastation of World War II.

Brussels - The head of the European Commission on Wednesday urged member states to work together to protect jobs and industry, rather than be tempted by "populist" and "protectionist" measures.

"The global financial crisis is not an excuse for protectionism: trade barriers shut out prosperity and open the gates instead to short-term economic populism," said Jose Manuel Barroso.

Barroso's warning came after the European Union executive approved guidelines on ways to mitigate the impact of the financial crisis on the European economy.

The guidelines will lay the basis for an EU-wide "comprehensive recovery plan", or stimulus package, due to be unveiled on November 26.

Berlin - Plans for economy-boosting moves by Germany's government were confirmed Wednesday in Berlin by Chancellor Angela Merkel as a global recession looms.

Addressing Germany's import-export federation BGA in Berlin, she said the package would include "focussed, bold and sustained" incentives for investment rather than being just a broad-based rise in government spending.