New Department of Labor data show that initial weekly jobless claims in the US fell to 293,000 in the week ending 9 October. This is the lowest level since the pandemic began in 2020. This reflects the economy"s continued recovery as firings and layoffs slowed last week. More US news Producer prices increased by 0.5 percent month-on-month in September. This is the lowest rise in 2021 according to the US Bureau of Statistics, and 80 percent of the increase was accounted for by a 1.3 percent rise in prices of final goods. This was accompanied by an annual increase in producer prices by 8.6 percent, the highest since 2010. German output Germany"s leading economic institutes decreased their shared estimate growth for 2021 to 2.4 percent from the previously forecasted 3.7 percent as supply bottlenecks slow recovery in the manufacturing sector. On the other hand, they raised the expected growth rate for 2022 to 4.8 percent rather than 3.9 percent and said that the German economy will reach normal capacity utilization in 2022. Moreover, the institutes said that inflation will increase in 2022 by 2.5 percent and by 1.7 percent in 2023. India’s balance of trade India’s trade deficit increased significantly to $22.6 billion in September, up from the much-lower gap of $2.7 billion in September of last year, official data showed. Imports soared by 84.8 percent year-on-year to $56.4 billion, mainly due to crude oil imports which almost tripled in value, as oil prices nearly doubled compared to a year earlier. Exports also rose, but at a much lower pace, as it grew by 22.6 percent to reach $33.9 billion. Coffee and cashew exports led much of this increase. Swedish inflation Sweden’s inflation rate gained pace in September as it rose to 2.5 percent up from 2.1 percent in the previous month, data from Statistics Sweden revealed. This is the highest rate since November of 2011. The new inflationary pressures were mainly fuelled by jumps in the housing & utilities index and the electricity & transport index as they rose by 5.1 percent and 6.2 percent respectively. Turkey’s reserves Changing by $2.2 billion, Turkish foreign exchange reserves increased to $85.4 billion on October 8, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey said.