Panel offers travelers’ wish list

Airlines, hotels advised to disclose any hidden fees.

WASHINGTON — Airlines should clearly disclose the cost of change and cancellation fees, as well as the size of the plane’s seats, before a passenger buys a ticket, a federal panel said Tuesday.

Hotels should also be required to include any mandatory fees in their room rates, the Transportation Department’s Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections recommended.

Some hotels have begun adding mandatory resort and other fees to bills even though customers say they weren’t informed of them when they booked their rooms. The panel’s recommendation on hotels was directed to the Federal Trade Commission, which has been investigating such so called drip pricing.

Likewise, the fourmember panel heard testimony that passengers must search to find the cost of change or cancellation fees that airlines hide in a ticket’s fine print. The fees can run hundreds of dollars, especially on international flights. The Transportation

rather than wait longer.

The prospect of a September rise in interest rates has worried many economists, not only because it could come during volatile market conditions but also because they believe deflation is still stalking the U.S. economy. In a speech in New York on Tuesday, Eric S. Rosengren, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, highlighted that inflation numbers are well below the Fed’s target of 2 percent. Rosengren also suggested that a weaker global economy and turmoil in the markets might make reaching that level harder.

“The jobs numbers on Friday will be really important,” said Edward J. Perkin, chief equity investment officer at Eaton Vance Management. “It will determine Fed policy one way or another.”

If the Fed decides to raise rates this month, it will likely announce it after monetary policy meetings scheduled for Sept. 16 and 17. Even if the Fed does not opt for a September rate increase, further problems in China and elsewhere could make investors reluctant to jump back into the stock market.

On Tuesday, a report from Beijing showed that Chinese manufacturing activity slipped in August to a three-year low, with both current production and new orders falling. That added to fears that China’s economy, the world’s second largest after that of the United States, may be slowing more than analysts had believed.

Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, warned on Tuesday that the world economy would most likely expand at only a “moderate” pace and would probably be weaker than the IMF forecast just two months ago.

“Asia as a region is still expected to lead global growth,” she said in a speech in Jakarta, Indonesia. “But even here, the pace is turning out slower than expected — with the risk that it may slow even further given the recent spike in global risk aversion and financial market volatility.”

The major European indexes all closed the day about 2 percent to 3 percent lower. In London, the FTSE 100 fell 3 percent, while the CAC 40 in Paris ended down 2.4 percent.

European shares declined despite an official report on Tuesday that showed that the jobless rate in the eurozone had slipped 0.2 of a percentage point in July, to 10.9 percent — the first time it sank below 11 percent since early 2012. While that still leaves about 17.5 million people classified as unemployed, it suggests that the bloc’s modest economic recovery remains on track.

The dollar fell against other major currencies. Oil prices also fell, breaking a three-day streak of increases.

Chinese manufacturing activity slipped in August to a three-year low …