WASHINGTON - The average U.S. household has a long way to go to recover the wealth it lost to the Great Recession, a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis concluded Thursday. The typical household has regained less than half its wealth, the analysis found. A separate Federal Reserve report in March calculated that Americans as a whole had regained 91 per cent of their losses.

Madrid, May 30 (EFE).- The pace of contraction in Spain's economy slowed in the first quarter, with the gross domestic product (GDP) falling just 0.50 percent, compared to the previous quarter, thanks to stabilizing consumer spending and business investment, the National Statistics Institute, or INE, said Thursday. GDP contracted 2 percent on a year-on-year basis due to a drop of 4.9 percent in consumer spending and a gain of 2.9 percent from the export sector, the INE said.

US stocks Wednesday closed lower amid concerns about global economic growth and the US Federal Reserve's plans for unwinding its aggressive stimulus program. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 106.59 (0.69 percent) to 15,302.80. The broad-based S&P 500 gave up 11.70 (0.70 percent) at 1,648.36, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 21.37 (0.61 percent) to 3,467.53. The losses came after the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development trimmed its world economic growth forecast for 2013 to 3.1 percent from 3.4 percent.

Thailand on Wednesday cut its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points, the first reduction in seven months, after the domestic economy contracted in the first quarter of the year. Sluggish economic growth in China, the United States and the European Union is weighing on the Thai economy, the central bank said as it reduced its policy rate to 2.50 percent. "Exports are likely to face downside risks because of slow growth in China while inflationary pressure has eased," the Bank of Thailand said in a statement.