This is helping the US economy. Wednesday's numbers are likely to show that although the trade deficit widened a little in July, it has narrowed in the past three months, suggesting that net exports are helping to boost growth - a process that the euro area's recovery should assist a little. Thanks in part to this, Tuesday's ISM survey should confirm last month's reading, that manufacturing growth has picked up recently.
However, this growth isn't (yet?) strong enough to greatly improve the labour market. Friday's figures are expected to show net growth in non-farm payrolls of around 180,000, which might not be enough to cut the unemployment rate from last month's 7.4 per cent. This suggests that even if the Fed does scale back its quantitative easing soon, it won't raise the Fed funds rate for some time.
UK figures, however, might be mixed. Purchasing managers should give us some good news, reporting good growth in both manufacturing and services in August. And trade figures might also be better than recent ones, showing that the deficit has declined if we compare the last three months to the previous three.
Consistent with this, the NIESR could estimate on Friday that real GDP grew by 0.8 per cent in the three months ending August. However, that estimate is likely to be a little flattered by a comparison with March and April, when GDP was weak; growth since May has been a little slower.
Official manufacturing data on Friday, though, might show a small fall in July - albeit after a big jump in June - perhaps because the heatwave slightly reduced production (although this could be offset by a rise in utilities output as air conditioners were on max).
The heatwave might also have affected retail sales. The boost to sales of summer clothing in July might have come in part at the expense of August sales. The BRC might therefore report on Tuesday that annual sales growth fell a little in August.
We'll see on Thursday how the Bank of England and ECB are responding to all this. We'll probably see no policy change from either.
