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GDP data show recession has ended for Germany, France

Germany and France caught economists off guard and returned to growth in the second quarter. Both economies expanded by 0.3%. “The data is very surprising,” French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said. “After four negative quarters, France is coming out of the red.

Fed holds interest rate, emergency measures

Striving for a “smooth transition in markets,” the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee delayed concluding its program to purchase U.S. Treasuries and kept the interest rate at close to zero. “The Fed knows its liquidity programs are essential to investor optimism, so it is not going to do anything to jeopardize the good mood,” said Christopher Low, chief economist at FTN Financial. “The Fed is always the last one to acknowledge that a recovery has begun because it cannot afford to be wrong.

U.K. joblessness to peak in 2011 at 3.25M, economist says

The number of unemployed workers in the U.K. will reach 3.25 million in the first quarter of 2011, said Vicky Redwood, an economist at Capital Economics. That would put joblessness at the same level as 1984, when the country experienced its highest unemployment rate since World War II.