> BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, DAILY REPORT, JULY 18, 2001:
>
> RELEASED TODAY: The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U)
> increased 0.2 percent in June, before seasonal adjustment, to a level of
> 178.0 (1982-84=100), the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. For
> the 12-month period ended in June, the CPI-U increased 3.2 percent. The
> Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W)
> rose 0.1 percent in June, prior to seasonal adjustment. The June level of
> 174.6 was 3.2 percent higher than the index in June 2000.
> __Real average weekly earnings were about unchanged from May to June after
> seasonal adjustment, according to preliminary data released today by the
> Bureau of Labor Statistics. A 0.3 percent increase in average hourly
> earnings was offset by a 0.2 percent rise in the CPI-W. Average weekly
> hours were unchanged.
>
> Consumer prices edged up last month as electricity prices continued to
> surge while the cost of gasoline and other energy products retreated. The
> Labor Department reported Wednesday that the Consumer Price Index, the
> government's most closely watched inflation measure, climbed by a
> seasonally adjusted 0.2 percent in June. The index was up 3.8 percent for
> the year. That was slightly higher than the 0.1 percent increase
> economists were expecting. The "core" rate of inflation, which excludes
> volatile energy and food prices, rose 0.3 percent in June compared with
> just 0.1 percent in May (Leigh Strope, Associated Press,
> http://www0.mercurycenter.com/breaking/headline2/025175.htm;
> http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2001-07-18-cpi.htm;
>
> U.S. consumer inflation rose modestly in June as falling energy prices
> helped offset price gains in food, housing and medical care, the
> government said on Wednesday. The Labor Department said its consumer
> price index, the nation's broadest gauge of inflation, rose 0.2 percent in
> June after a 0.4 percent gain during the previous month. Excluding
> volatile food and energy prices, the so-called core index rose 0.3 percent
> after a 0.1 percent advance in May (Reuters,
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13410-2001Jul18.html).
>
> Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on Wednesday cautioned that the
> yearlong economic slowdown has not ended and may require another
> interest-rate reduction to revive sluggish growth. He was testifying to
> the House Financial Services Committee. Before Greenspan testified, the
> government reported the consumer price index, a closely watched inflation
> gauge, rose 0.2 percent in June, while the costs of gasoline and other
> energy products retreated. However, electricity prices posted a record
> rise. Housing construction, a pillar supporting the economy, posted a
> strong 3 percent increase, another report showed (Jeannine Averse,
> Associated Press, http://www.nypost.com/apstories/business/V4634.htm;
> http://www.usatoday.com/money/mlead.htm).
>
> It's official. The economic slowdown that began last year in the
> manufacturing and tech sectors of the United States has now spread around
> the world, creating a synchronized downturn for the first time in a
> decade. After a decade-long slump, Japan is slipping back into recession,
> while the export "tigers" of Southeast Asia find they have few places to
> export to. Another current and credit crisis has gripped south America.
> Even Europe, which only months ago boasted that it would avoid the
> contagion, is showing all the early symptoms. Only China, in the midst of
> reforming its vast domestic economy, seems to be immune (Steven
> Pearlstein, The Washington Post, page 1).
>
Industrial production fell 0.7 percent in June, marking the 9th month in a
row that the industrial sector has contracted, the Federal Reserve says.
The latest decline has brought the industrial production index down to 142.5
percent of its 1992 average from an upwardly revised 143.5 percent in May.
For the second quarter, output was down 5.6 percent at an annual rate, after
contracting at a 6.8 percent rate in the first quarter, and by 0.9 percent
in the fourth quarter of 2000 (Daily Labor Report, page D-1; John M. Berry,
The Washington Post, page E1; Associated Press, The New York Times, page
C12; The Wall Street Journal, page A2).
> DUE OUT TOMORROW: "Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers,
> Second Quarter 2001."
>
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