A look at economic developments and activity in major stock markets around the world Monday:
___
LONDON — The international economy is still fragile and vulnerable to shocks despite recent improvements in financial markets, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund said.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn told business leaders he believes the worst of the economic crisis has passed — but that problems remained.
Strauss-Kahn also said Asian countries needed to help drive international growth. American households have traditionally been the main drivers of international growth, consuming goods exported by other countries, but Strauss-Kahn said this model needs to change.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, also speaking at the same conference, agreed investment from China could help drive Britain's economic recovery.
Stocks rose in Europe. the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares closed up 2 percent, while Germany's DAX rose 2.4 percent and the CAC-40 was 2.3 percent higher.
___
BEIJING — Regulators ordered Chinese banks to control lending and manage risks better amid concern that a rapid, stimulus-fueled credit boom this year might affect the industry's health.
The credit boom began to ease in July, but economists have warned that reckless lending could leave banks saddled with bad loans. The government worries excess lending might be driving dangerous overexpansion in some industries.
Banks were told to maintain a "stable and sustainable pace" of lending through the end of the year, the China Banking Regulator Commission said on its Web site. It gave no financial targets.
Asian shares were mixed. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 1.4 percent, South Korea's Kospi fell 0.1 percent, Australia's index gained 0.7 percent and China's Shanghai benchmark rose 0.9 percent. Markets were lower in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, New Zealand and the Philippines. Japan was closed for a public holiday.
___
BRUSSELS — Close to 45 percent of Europe's unemployed stay out of work for at least a year, said the EU's executive commission, compared to about 10 percent in the U.S.
Some 4 million people have lost their jobs since last year's financial crisis triggered an economic downturn across the 27-nation bloc, which is not expected to fully recover until 2011.
On average, workers over the age of 55 are out of work for nearly 15 months, people between 25-54 are jobless for 12 months while younger people under 25 take around 10 months to find another job.
The EU warned that strict employment protection legislation tends to increase long-term unemployment
___
MADRID — Spain will propose reforms this week designed to wean its battered economy from dependence on the construction sector and usher in a more sustainable growth model.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said that after five straight quarters of contraction the Spanish economy "is on the verge of posting positive quarterly figures." Some foreign experts predict the economy will keep shrinking in 2010 and not resume growth until 2011.
___
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's central bank governor says the country gained about $5 billion by shifting its foreign currency reserve basket from the U.S. dollar to the euro.
Earlier this year, Iran said it was switching to the euro for its crude oil sales, which account for about 80 percent of its foreign income.
The shift was largely seen as a response to U.S. efforts to isolate Tehran over its controversial nuclear program.
___
BANGKOK — Thailand's economy grew for a second straight quarter as government stimulus spending and an improvement in manufacturing propelled its recovery from recession, the government said.
Southeast Asia's second-largest economy expanded 1.3 percent in the third quarter from the previous quarter though the total size of gross domestic product remained below pre-crisis levels.
___
BUDAPEST — The National Bank of Hungary cut its main interest rate by a half percentage point to 6.5 percent, its lowest level since June 2006, to boost economic activity.
___
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan's jobless rate fell slightly to 5.96 percent in October as fewer people lost their jobs due to company layoffs, the government said.
