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Economy in Brief
U.S. Consumer Credit Outstanding Declines in January
Consumers reduced credit balances further in January...
U.S. Trade Deficit Widens to $68.2 Billion in January
The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services widened to $68.2 billion in January...
German Order Growth Gets Back in Gear Despite the Headwinds
German order growth is back in gear with total orders rising by 1.4% m/m in January...
U.S. Factory Orders & Shipments Rise Again in January
Manufacturing activity is strengthening. Factory orders rose 2.6% (2.8% y/y) in January...
U.S. Initial Unemployment Insurance Claims Rise Just 9,000
Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose modestly by 9,000 to 745,000 in the week ended February 27...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by By Carol Stone April 7, 2005
Four diverse countries reported February industrial production data today, UK, Germany, Hungary and Malaysia. While three saw a decrease in February, output is generally rising, albeit fitfully.
Malaysia has the strongest gains of these nations, with February up 5.2% from the previous month and 8.5% from a year ago after an overall advance of 11.3% in 2004. Rubber, food and chemicals show the most distinct uptrends. Malaysia is included in Haver's EMERGEPR database. Hungarian data are in the EMERGECW database. Output in Hungary was strong in 2004 also, with growth of 8.4%, but has slowed noticeably in recent months. A decline of 0.3% in February put it just 1.3% ahead of the year-earlier month. The recent weakness is evident in the mining sector, although wood, paper and machinery industries continue to show gains.
The larger industrial countries are no more than mixed. Output in the UK and Germany fell in February by 0.4% and 1.4%, respectively, with German production up 1.9% from a year ago, but the UK off 1.4%. The UK's energy sector has been weakening steadily since 2000 and this is restraining overall growth. Machinery and appliances, however, continue to increase. In Germany, the energy refining and production sector, by contrast, is providing some growth, along with chemicals, paper and electrical equipment.
Each Germany and the UK has its own Haver database, and a summary of the production data is also included in G10. This latter database, compiled by Haver directly from its country sources, is arranged by country and also by concept, so production among individual countries can be easily compared. A database from Eurostat, the EU's data coordinator, also contains summary production data, as do a number of other international organization and privately generated databases among Haver's collections.
Percent Changes Monthly, seasonally adjusted |
Feb 2005 | Jan 2005 | Year Ago | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
UK | -0.4 | -0.3 | -1.4 | 0.5 | -0.1 | -2.5 |
Germany | -1.4 | 2.8 | 1.9 | 4.2 | 0.4 | -1.1 |
Hungary | -0.3 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 8.4 | 6.6 | 3.3 |
Malaysia | 5.2 | -2.3 | 8.5 | 11.3 | 9.3 | 4.6 |
Memo: US | 0.3 | 0.1 | 3.3 | 4.1 | -0.0 | -0.3 |