Economy good with people showing a redeeming quality (6,5)
I believe the answer is:
saving grace
'a redeeming quality' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'economy good with people' is the wordplay.
'economy' becomes 'saving' ('saving' can be a synonym of 'economy'**).
'good' becomes 'g' (abbreviation).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'people' becomes 'race'.
'saving'+'g'+'race'='SAVING GRACE'
'showing' is the link.
(Other definitions for saving grace that I've seen before include "a description of Miss Darling?" , "Redeeming quality" , "Compensatory good point" , "Redeeming feature" , "What stops one condemning" .)