US GDP (gross  domestic product) fell at a 1% annual rate in the second quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the Commerce Department said Friday, in the first estimate for the period. First-quarter GDP was revised to a 6.4% drop from an earlier reading of a 5.5% decline. Wall Street expected a bigger decline in second-quarter GDP. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires projected a 1.5% decrease. But the slump was still smaller than the contraction over the previous nine months, in a powerful signal that the recession has eased. GDP has now fallen four-consecutive quarters, the first time that has happened since quarterly records began being kept in 1947.

 Average Irish national house fell by 1.5% in June according to the latest edition of the permanent tsb / ESRI House Price Index. This compares to reductions in May (-1.3%), April (-1.9%) and March 2009 (-1.0%).  In the first six months of 2009 national house prices have fallen by 7.7% which compares to a reduction of 5.0% in the same period in 2008. Measured over the 12 months (year on year) to June, national prices were down by 11.7%. This compares to a decline of 10.9% recorded in the 12 months to May 2009. 

Almost a dozen giant warehouses sit silent and empty in Phoenix, relics of the city’s dashed dream to become a national distribution hub.

Markets news on stocks, currencies and commodities.

Markets news on stocks, currencies and commodities.

The Central Bank said today that Irish private-sector credit (PSC)/bank lending continued to fall in June, declining by €1.4 billion, following May’s €1.6 billion decline. As in recent months, this was mostly due to write-downs of loans with the underlying amount of credit outstanding remaining relatively unchanged. The annual rate of change in PSC turned negative in June, to minus 0.7 per cent. This is the first annual decrease recorded since the Central Bank began analysing PSC on the current basis. Residential mortgage lending outstanding declined by €62 million in June - - the third consecutive month of decline. The increase from a year earlier was down to 1.9 per cent in June, the lowest on record.

Eurozone annual inflation is expected to be -0.6% in July 2009 according to a flash estimate issued today by Eurostat. the EU statistics office. It was -0.1% in June. Eurostat also reported that the Eurozone (EA16) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 9.4% in June 2009, compared with 9.3% in May. It was 7.5% in June 2008. June’s rate is the highest rate since June 1999.

July PMI survey data provided further evidence to signal that a recovery is underway in Japan’s manufacturing economy. The seasonally adjusted headline Nomura/JMMA Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 50.4 in July, from 48.2 in the
 previous month, pointing to the first improvement in operating conditions for seventeen months. Although only marginal, growth of the sector was slightly faster than the survey’s historical average. In other data released Friday, Japan hit a new record for core consumer price deflation in June, while unemployment hit a six-year high.

Principal news stories from the Irish Independent, Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Financial Times and New York Times.

UCD economist Professor Karl Whelan, has been a prominent critic of the Government’s handling of the banking crisis and following Thursday’s publication of draft legislation on the planned “bad bank” NAMA, he titled his post on the Irish Economy blog, “BaNama Republic,” taking aim at the plan to use “long term economic value,” as the basis for valuing toxic property loans. “Demograhics,” the favourite  crutch of the boosters during the property bubble, has also been been disinterred from the wreckage.