Favourable comparisons have rightly been made with the bumbling response by an earlier government to the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, which killed 6, 400.

ECONOMIST: Japan's disaster

The Culture for Development Indicator Suite (CDIS) provides a timely response to these challenges, building on the current favourable political context, greater capacity for data collection, and the critical mass of field experiences from large-scale projects.

UNESCO: Culture for Development Indicators

The euro tends to weaken against the dollar in response to disappointing data in the euro area, but fails to rise when the news is favourable.

ECONOMIST: The dollar