And the numbers that came out give people the feeling that the economy is on the soft side.
Meanwhile, Darling and Brown need evidence next week that the economy is responding to a bit of tender loving care.
Reports that the economy might improve in six months' time.
A month ago, the organization forecast that the American economy would grow by six-tenths of 1 percent in the first half of next year.
In addition, speculation that the economy would quickly improve raised fears of inflation and higher interest rates among fixed-income investors.
At the same time the slowdown in creating new jobs continued, easing fear that the economy would expand too rapidly.
The latest economic data from China has backed up the view that the economy there is cooling.
A concern, yes, but nothing that the economy cannot sustain.
The fund forecasts that the economy will shrink next year by 1.3 percent, dragging global growth down to 2.4 percent.
The monetary fund forecasts that the Australian economy will grow 3.5 percent this year and next.
