WASHINGTON - The economy’s growth slowed sharply in the second quarter, logging just a 2.5 percent pace as consumers tightened their belts and spending on home building dived. Inflation, however, shot up. The latest snapshot of gross domestic product released by the Commerce Department on Friday showed that the overall pace of economic activity in the April-to-June quarter was less than half that of the January-to-March quarter, when the economy zipped along at a 5.6 percent annual rate, the fastest in 2 1/2 years. Gross domestic product measures the value of all goods and services produced within the United States...