Economic Overview

This week, The Economist published an overview of the previous weeks economic headlines. Here are the overviews:

Economic and financial indicators
America's GDP grew at an annual rate of 2.5% in the second quarter, down from 5.6% in the first. The Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation—the price index for core personal consumption expenditures—rose by 2.4% in the year to June, too fast for comfort. There was better news in the Institute for Supply Management's index of manufacturing, which gave a reading of 54.7 in July, up from 53.8 the month before. And despite a weakening housing market, construction spending grew by 0.3% in June thanks to strong non-residential building.

Industrial production in Japan increased by 1.9% in June, surpassing expectations. Output was 4.8% higher than a year before. The average price of a square metre of land rose by 0.9% from a year earlier. In Tokyo it went up by 5.4%.

In the euro area, annual consumer-price inflation remained at 2.5% in July, according to first estimates. Unemployment fell to 7.8% in June, seasonally adjusted, from 7.9% in May. In Germany, unemployment fell to 10.6%, also seasonally adjusted, on the federal labour office's measure, the lowest rate in almost two years.

Australia's central bank raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point to 6%, a 5½-year high. This was its second increase in four months. Annual inflation was 4% in the second quarter, pushed up by higher prices for petrol and fruit.

Emerging-Market Indicators
Industrial production expanded by 10.9% in South Korea, 6.1% in Thailand and 2.3% in Chile in the year to June. In the Philippines and Indonesia, however, industrial production contracted by 5.4% and 1.6% respectively in the year to May.

In India, annual inflation was 7.7% in the year to June, much faster than the 6.3% recorded in May. In Indonesia, consumer prices rose by 15.2% in the year to July.