1 US growth revised up again (BBC) The US economy
grew even faster in the second quarter than previously thought, new figures
have indicated. The Commerce Department said it grew at a 3.1% annual rate over
the three months to the end of June, up from a previous estimate of 3%, which
was itself revised up from an initial 2.6%.
The further upward revision came as a surprise to
analysts, who had it expected it to stay the same. Higher consumer spending,
helped boost the figure, as did state expenditure. The US economy is now
growing at the fastest rate in two years.
2 India’s flagging economy raises worries (San
Francisco Chronicle) Three years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to
power on a euphoric wave of promises to boost India's economy, add millions of
jobs and bring "good times" to the developing nation. India's economic
prospects look decidedly grimmer.
India's economic expansion has slowed to its lowest
level in three years. Small businesses are struggling, or even shutting down,
after overhauls of the nation's currency and sales tax system. Modi's own
allies warn of a dire outlook, with some raising the specter of an economic
depression.
While government ministers have urged patience,
analysts and others in Modi's governing Bharatiya Janata Party are not so sanguine
about the current trends. "A hard landing appears inevitable,"
Yashwant Sinha, a BJP lawmaker and former finance minister, said in a stinging
commentary. He accused the government of rushing through poorly planned
economic reforms, which he said will hobble home-grown businesses for years to
come.
Another leading BJP lawmaker, Subramanian Swamy,
said India was facing the possibility of a "major depression." Last
week, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development scaled back its
economic growth forecast for India to 6.7 percent for the 2018 fiscal year,
down from 7.3 percent predicted earlier this year. Other organizations and
banks have made similar downward revisions.
Economists have said the country needs to maintain 8
percent growth to add enough jobs for some 12 million young people joining the
work force every year. The warnings have been sobering for Modi, who appointed
a new Economic Advisory Council this week to offer him advice independent of
the finance ministry. Economists said that may be too little, too late.
Economists are most alarmed by the slowdown in
manufacturing and construction — two sectors many had assumed would do well
under a business-friendly government. Instead, both have seen a sharp rise in
unemployment.
3 UK young ‘more anxious’ (Phillip Inman in The
Guardian) A third of young people feel more anxious now than this time last
year, according to a study that found the prospect of Britain leaving the
European Union, money worries and the cost of housing have magnified doubts
about future prospects.
The rise in anxiety sits alongside figures showing
that around half of young people are struggling to make ends meet, including
10% of young people who are facing dire financial problems as stagnating wages
and rising inflation hit their incomes.
Coming only a week after senior MPs called for an
independent review of the UK’s rising debt levels, the Young Women’s Trust said
many of the 4,000 young people aged 16 to 30 it surveyed for its annual report,
Worrying Times, battled to make it to the end of the month without borrowing
money from friends, family or commercial lenders.
The report found that 41% of young women and 28% of
young men said it was “a real struggle to make their cash last until the end of
the month”, compared with 39% and 27% respectively in 2016.
The report’s
authors said: “Our findings show young women are consistently more likely than
young men to encounter money problems, workplace discrimination, health
problems, worries about the future and low confidence. And women from the
lowest socio-economic groups are faring worse still, with their situation also
deteriorating in the last 12 months.”
The Young Women’s Trust said some measures of
financial anxiety and wellbeing among the under-30s had recovered slightly
since last year, when the poll registered a severe slump in financial
confidence. But in July, when the poll was carried out, almost half of young
people (47%) still said they were worried for the future.
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