The momentum of the global economy has continued to weaken recently. The USA and the euro area registered only moderate quarterly growth of 0.2 percent each in the second quarter. The more unfavourable economic outlook, the controversial debate about the government debt ceiling in the USA, and the debt crisis in the euro area triggered very high uncertainty in financial markets in August. Following a severe decline, stock prices stabilised for the time being towards the end of the month. The Austrian economy expanded by 0.7 percent in real terms in the second quarter, but, as evidenced by the WIFO Business Cycle Survey, will very likely not be able to elude the cooling of global economic activity in the third quarter. HICP core inflation was 3.1 percent in Austria, exceeding the euro area average by 1.6 percentage points.