Individual secondary schools in England will from next year be able to take a version of the OECD’s PISA test in order to benchmark themselves against the world’s best education systems.

The global economic crisis has shaken public confidence in governments.

The OECD’s latest Government at a Glance report looks at what governments can do to improve their effectiveness and efficiency while meeting the needs of citizens. It provides a dashboard of more than 50 indicators measuring government performance across the 34 member countries of the OECD.

OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría welcomed today Hungary’s steps to strengthen international tax co-operation after it became the 61st signatory to the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters.

Improving France’s competitiveness is essential to boost the economic growth needed to create jobs and allow citizens and businesses to develop their full potential, according to a new OECD report.

The global economic crisis has undermined trust in government. Today only four out of ten citizens in OECD countries say they have confidence in their national authorities. Not surprisingly, trust declined in the countries hit hardest by the crisis, such as Ireland, Greece, Slovenia and Portugal.

OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria welcomed today Liechtenstein’s announcement of plans to sign the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters and take further steps to increase transparency and international co-operation.

The OECD’s latest Economic Survey of Switzerland, to be published on Thursday 21 November 2013, assesses the country’s strong recent performance, its short-term outlook and the policy challenges it faces in the longer term. The Survey also looks at what Switzerland can do to meet environmental targets while maintaining energy security, to boost productivity and to better integrate women into the workforce.

Provisional estimates show that quarterly real gross domestic product (GDP) in the OECD area increased by 0.5% in the third quarter of 2013, the same rate as in the previous quarter.

The global economy is expected to continue expanding at a moderate pace over the coming two years, but policymakers must ensure that instability in financial markets and underlying fragility in some major economies are not allowed to derail growth, according to the OECD’s latest Economic Outlook.

Total health spending has fallen in one of three OECD countries between 2009 and 2011, with those hardest hit by the crisis most affected. This is a sharp reversal from the strong growth in the years prior to the crisis, according to a new OECD report.