Slowdown seen in the US, still hot elsewhere

Slower growth and faster inflation for the US economy appears to be the current consensus. From Reuters:

Growth in U.S. real output over the near term looks slower but inflation a bit higher than they did three months ago, according to a survey issued by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank on Monday.

Inflation does seem to be a force in the UK too, at least in producer input prices. Again from Reuters:

Record oil prices helped push producer input prices up 1.1 percent last month, the fastest rate since April and above a consensus forecast of 1.0 percent.

However, output prices rose just 0.2 percent in July, bringing the annual rate of factory gate inflation down to 2.8 percent from 3.3 percent in June.

Core output prices rose 0.1 percent, the smallest monthly rise since October 2005 and well below expectations for a 0.3 percent increase.

And in UK house prices:

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors said its house price balance rose to +31 from +28 in the three months to June -- its strongest reading since May 2004 when house price inflation was in double figures and the price balance hit +41.

Meanwhile, there were few signs of a slowdown in economic growth in most of the euro zone in the second quarter. From Bloomberg:

The economy of the dozen euro nations grew the most in six years in the second quarter as exports spurred spending by companies and consumers, making it likely the European Central Bank will keep raising interest rates.

The $10 trillion economy expanded 0.9 percent from the first quarter, when it grew 0.6 percent, Eurostat, the European Union's statistics office in Luxembourg, said today. Growth will probably reach about 0.7 percent in the next two quarters before slowing to 0.5 percent at the start of 2007, said the European Commission.

China's economy has also been hot as bank lending and the money supply grew in July despite government control efforts while retail sales of consumer goods rose 13.7 percent in July over the same month last year. On the other hand, China imported less copper and aluminum in the first seven months of the year compared to last year.