Employers in the US added 288,000 jobs in June, the Labour Department said last week. This is the fifth consecutive month that hiring has topped the 200,000 mark.

In the meantime, the unemployment rate dipped to 6.1 per cent, the lowest reading since September 2008, when the collapse of Lehman Brothers brought about a deep financial crisis and a severe economic downturn.

Despite the broad gains, employment is still far from its peak at the end of 2007 as the proportion of Americans in the labour force has been stuck for three straight months at 62.8 per cent, a 36-year low, and is down sharply from 66 per cent in 2008.

In the meantime, the inflation rate in the euro area stood at 0.50 per cent in June, unchanged from the rate in May, according to the European Statistics Office. This data highlights the challenge faced by ECB as it tries to stoke prices and underpin economic growth. Meanwhile, according to Markit Economics, manufacturing in the euro area slowed more than initially estimated in June as the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 51.8 from 52.2, below a preliminary reading of 51.9.

This weakness in the euro area economy justifies the European Central Bank’s (ECB) stance last week to keep interest rates low. The ECB pushed interest rates into negative territory at the June meeting in an effort to combat weak growth and prevent deflation.

Finally, Britain’s manufacturing sector enjoyed its strongest growth “for a generation” in the second quarter, economists said last week, after a respected survey unexpectedly showed activity continued to surge last month.

The Markit/CIPS PMI rose to 57.5 in June from 57 the previous month. This is its second highest point in 40 months and well above the 50 level that separates growth from contraction. Economists said the data showed Britain’s recovery was gaining traction and broadening out.

In the meantime, according to Nationwide Building Society, UK house prices rose one per cent in June from May.

This article was compiled by Bank of Valletta for general information purposes only.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.