Statement by the President on the U.S. Economy.

1. After-tax income

--Because of some revisions in the 1st quarter, the advance in after-tax income in the 2d quarter turns out to be $12 billion, the biggest gain of any quarter in history.

--So both the quarter-to-quarter gain of $12 billion and the year-to-year gain of $32 1/2 billion are all-time records.

This year-to-year gain in after-tax income breaks down into $556 per family of 4.

2. Weekly retail sales

--Retail store sales for the week ended July 11 were up 8 percent from a year ago.

--The rise over a year ago averaged 9½ percent for the 2 weeks ending July 11, bettering the 6.2 percent year-to-year rise for the month of June, and the 5.4 percent year-to-year rise for the first half of 1964.

3. Housing starts

Private nonfarm starts, after declining for 2 months, rose in June to a seasonally adjusted rate of 1 .5 million units. --4.8 percent above May,

--making June the 11th month out of the last 12 that starts have been at, or above a strong 1 ½ million rate.

4. Detroit employment gains

The city of Detroit has had such good employment gains that it is now off the depressed areas list.

Estimated unemployment for the city fell to 4.6 percent (not seasonally corrected) in May, down from 6.0 percent last May.

Detroit is a striking example of our expansion of the past 3 years. Their unemployment was

--15.5 percent for 1961, against 6.7 percent for the U.S.

--9.6 percent for 1962, against 5.6 percent for the U.S.

--7.0 percent for 1963, against 5.7 percent for the U.S.

--4.6 percent for May 1964, against 4.9 percent for the U.S.

So rising demand (mainly for autos) can and does create jobs--stronger markets and incentives generated by the tax cut are bringing the national unemployment rate down too (as Secretary Wirtz's new figures made so clear yesterday).

5. Manufacturers' new orders

New orders for durable goods in June:

--fell 1.3 percent from May (seasonally corrected),

--but were 12.2 percent above last June.

6. Real GNP and our fine price stability

To get a picture of how much real GNP advances, an overall price index used for this purpose is called the "GNP deflator." It rose only 0.3 percent in the 2d quarter, as against an average of 0.5 percent in the previous 4 quarters.

This means that the advance in real GNP from a year ago was 5.2 percent, the best advance in nearly 2 years.

This is one piece of evidence that there's no overheating, or inflation, in response to the tax cut.

--From February to June, the wholesale price index fell 0.4 percent.

--From February to May, the consumer price index rose only 0.2 percent.

--Both our own surveys and private surveys show very little expectation of price increases by businessmen.