NEW DELHI: Jet Airways Ltd said on Friday it made a profit in the June quarter compared to a loss in the year-ago period, helped by a drop in fuel expenses and a one-time gain on sale and leaseback of engines. Mumbai-based Jet, India’s second largest carrier by market share, said net profit in the April to June quarter was at INR 2.21 billion, compared with a loss of INR 2.18 billion the same quarter last year. Despite rapidly rising demand for air travel in India, Jet has not made an annual profit since 2007, dragged into the red by high operating costs and fierce competition for passenger fares. — Reuters

German recovery up

FRANKFURT: Growth of the German economy, Europe’s biggest, picked up marginally in the second quarter of 2015, driven by the weaker euro and healthy consumer spending, official data showed on Friday. German gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 0.4 per cent in the period from April to June, up from 0.3 per cent in the first quarter, the federal statistics office Destatis said in a flash estimate. Analysts had been projecting marginally stronger growth of 0.5 per cent for the second quarter. — AFP

US producer prices

WASHINGTON: US producer prices rose for a third straight month in July, but inflation pressures remain benign against the backdrop of lower oil prices and a strong dollar. The Labour Department said on Friday its producer price index (PPI) for final demand increased 0.2 per cent last month after increasing 0.4 per cent in June. An increase of 0.4 per cent in services prices, which offset a fall of 0.1 per cent in the cost of goods, accounted for the increase in the PPI last month. In the 12 months through July, the PPI fell 0.8 per cent after declining 0.7 per cent in June. It was the sixth straight 12-month decrease in the index. — Reuters

France GDP stagnates

PARIS: France’s economy stagnated in the second quarter after an encouraging 0.7 per cent rise in GDP in the three months before, with investment falling away, according to official statistics released on Friday. Finance Minister Michel Sapin insisted that the second biggest economy in the eurozone was still on course to post one per cent growth over the year as a whole. — AFP