ECONOMY

Inventories Down; Loan Payments Improve: The new reports suggest that the U.S. economy may pick up a bit in the second half of the year. Inventories on shelves and in back lots shrank 0.5% in July, to a seasonally adjusted level of $860.3 billion, the Commerce Department said. The level in June was unchanged and the July decline was the steepest since March, 1991. Meanwhile, the American Bankers Assn. said the proportion of delinquent consumer loan payments fell during the April-June quarter to its lowest level in nine years.