Weekly Economic Update: August 3-7, 2015

LAST WEEK

News & Commentary Weekly Highlights:

Forbes: A Tale of Two Labor Markets (Thursday)
Investor’s: How Dodd-Frank Ate the U.S. Economic Recovery (Tuesday)
Wall Street Journal: U.S. Health Spending Growth Jumped to 5.5% in 2014 (Tuesday)
Market Watch: IMF Sees Trouble for Eurozone Beyond Greek Crisis (Monday)
Wall Street Journal: Sudden Drop in Crude-Oil Prices Roils U.S. Energy Firms’ Rebound (Sunday)

Top Economic Indicator Highlights:

Gross Domestic Product (advance estimate, Q2)

Real GDP Quarterly Change (annual rate): 2.3%, Previous quarter (revised): 0.6%, Recovery avg. (revised): 2.1%
Annual Revision: From the second quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2015, real GDP increased an annual average rate of 2.1%, 0.1 percentage point less than previously estimated. From 2011 to 2014, real GDP increased an annual average rate of 2.0%.
Noteworthy: Positive contributions to second quarter GDP included personal consumption expenditures, exports, state and local government spending, and residential fixed investment, offset partially by negative contributions from federal government spending, private inventory investment, increased imports, and nonresidential fixed investments. The second estimate of GDP for the second quarter will be released on August 27^th.
Current Forecasts for Q3 2015: Macroeconomic Advisers’ current third-quarter 2015 forecast for annualized real GDP growth is 2.7%, and Wells Fargo estimates 1.8%. Wall Street Journal’s survey of economists expects an increase of 3.1% growth.

THIS WEEK

Upcoming Economic Reports & Releases:

Major Indicators

Chart of the Week:

Downward Revisions of GDP

Representative David Schweikert - Vice Chairman