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Most Americans oppose President Barack Obama’s ban on deepwater oil drilling in response to BP Plc’s Gulf of Mexico spill, even as they hold the company primarily responsible for the incident.

According to the preliminary estimation, the gross domestic product (GDP) of China in the first half of this year was 17,284.0 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.1 percent, which was 3.7 percentage points higher than that in the same period last year.

Workers in the private sector will continue to receive historically low annual wage increases in the coming months, according to the final second quarter Wage Trend Indicator™ (WTI) released today by BNA, a leading publisher of specialized news and information.

In a resolution on the on the employment targets to be achieved by EU Member States, MEPs argue that the employment rate should be increased to 75% by 2020, with a peculiar focus on vulnerable groups. They also call for legislation on atypical forms of employment, such as part-time, casual, temporary and fixed-term contract work.

Mortgage rates moved up this week, with the average conforming 30-year fixed mortgage rate rising to 4.77 percent, according to Bankrate.com's weekly national survey. The average 30-year fixed mortgage has an average of 0.41 discount and origination points.

The EU needs a strategy by 2011 to encourage the creation of green jobs, says a draft resolution by the Employment and Social Affairs Committee that was adopted on Wednesday. Training and education systems must be tailored to match these new types of work, add MEPs.

A new Financial Times/Harris Poll finds that when it comes to reducing deficits and public debts, cutting spending is definitely preferred to raising taxes by adults in the five largest European countries and the United States. Half of French adults (50%), just over two in five Italians (45%), Spaniards (44%) and Germans (41%), and just under two in five Americans (37%) and one-quarter of Britons (25%) all would prefer spending cuts to paying higher taxes. Around two in five in each of the six countries (between 37% and 46%) would prefer a mixture of the two, with spending cuts bearing the bigger part of the burden.

In May 2010 compared with April 2010, seasonally adjusted industrial production grew by 0.9% in the euro area (EA16) and by 1.0% in the EU27. In April production increased by 0.9% and 0.5% respectively.

Euro area annual inflation was 1.4% in June 2010, down from 1.6% in May. A year earlier the rate was -0.1%. Monthly inflation was 0.0% in June 2010.

U.S. import prices declined for the second consecutive month in June, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported, decreasing 1.3 percent. The drop was driven by declining fuel prices, although a downturn in nonfuel prices also contributed to the overall decrease. Export prices also fell in June, edging down 0.2 percent following three consecutive monthly increases.