The Bureau of Economic Analysis held Q2 GDP growth at 1.5 percent and reported July core PCE inflation steady at 3.3 percent year over year Wednesday. The Black Executive Journal — Daily Edition
The Bureau of Economic Analysis on Wednesday released its second estimate of second-quarter gross domestic product, leaving the annualized growth rate at 1.5 percent — unchanged from the July 30 advance estimate and down from 2.1 percent in the first quarter (BEA — Aug 26, 2026).
Consumer spending, which supports roughly two-thirds of US economic activity, was revised upward to a 3.4 percent annualized pace from the originally reported 3.2 percent, per the same release.
Real final sales to private domestic purchasers — the sum of consumer spending and gross private fixed investment, and the cleanest measure of underlying demand — rose 3.9 percent in Q2, more than double the first-quarter reading of 1.7 percent (BEA — Aug 26, 2026).
The composition tells a specific story: private demand is running hot, while government spending contracted and imports subtracted from the headline.
At the same 8:30 a.m. ET release, the July Personal Income and Outlays report showed headline PCE inflation at 3.7 percent year over year (unchanged from June), with the month-over-month reading rising to 0.2 percent from a revised -0.1 percent in June (BEA — Aug 26, 2026).
Core PCE — the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge, stripping out food and energy — held at 3.3 percent annually while rising to 0.2 percent on the month from 0.1 percent, exactly matching consensus (The Daily Record — Aug 26, 2026).
The revision leaves the Fed with the harder version of the same problem: private demand is accelerating, inflation is not falling, and the September 16 FOMC meeting is now three weeks away.
Federal-funds futures moved to a 42 percent implied probability of a September hike on the print (The Daily Record — Aug 26, 2026).
For Black-owned businesses carrying floating-rate credit lines, refinancing capex on variable rates, or evaluating fixed-rate SBA 7(a) locks, the marginal case for locking sooner rather than later strengthened this morning.
For firms bidding on multi-quarter procurement contracts, the 3.9 percent private-domestic-demand pace argues against pricing in a demand-side pullback in 2026 planning.
The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank awarded a $2 million grant to establish the African Cybersecurity Resource Center (ACRC) for Financial Inclusion, headquartered in Dakar, Senegal, with sub-regional hubs in West Africa and East Africa (AfDB — Aug 26, 2026).
The grant is disbursed through the Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI), a blended-finance vehicle whose partners include the French Development Agency, the French Treasury, the Government of Luxembourg's Ministry of Finance, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, per the same release.
COMING UP...
AFRICA — African Development Bank Approves $2 Million Grant For Cybersecurity Resource Center In Dakar
CARIBBEAN — Caribbean Development Bank Launches Digital Transformation Initiative For Regional MSMEs
AFRICA — African Development Bank And Italian CDP Commit $35 Million To North Africa Growth Fund
UNITED STATES — Cleveland Fed Nowcast Shows July Core PCE Barely Rounded Down From 0.3 Percent
Projected reach is significant: up to 250 million vulnerable customers and 2,000–3,000 financial institutions across the continent, with a specific gender target of improved cybersecurity for 20–25 million women within five years and an ACRC workforce composition of at least 39 percent women (AfDB — Aug 26, 2026).
