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- Kazakhstan: Labor Productivity Index (Q4)
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Economy in Brief
U.S. New Home Sales and Prices Strengthen
Sales of new single-family homes during March increased 4.0% (8.8% y/y) to 694,000 (SAAR)...
U.S. FHFA House Price Index Continues to Strengthen
The FHFA index of U.S. house prices rose 0.6% during February...
U.S. Energy Prices Rise Further
Retail gasoline prices increased to $2.80 per gallon last week (14.3% y/y)...
Italian Confidence Backtracks But Remains High-Valued As It Is for France and Germany
From Q1 2008 to date, Italian GDP actually has failed to grow and has declined by 5.8%...
U.S. Existing Home Sales & Prices Rise Again
The NAR reported that sales of existing homes increased 1.1% during March (-1.2% y/y) to 5.600 million units (AR)...
by Tom Moeller September 2, 2009
Inventories still are being shed, but at a somewhat slower rate. That is a part of the recent improvement in the level of factory sector output. Manufactures' inventories during July fell 0.7% after a June decline that was revised deeper to 1.1%. These still-significant declines are behind an easing of the decumulation rate to 10.0% from 15.9% this past Winter. Much of that deceleration is due, however, to lower oil prices. Nevertheless, excluding oil, factory inventories fell at a 12.2% three-month rate that was a slight moderation from 14.3% earlier.
The moderation in inventory decumulation rates continues spotty amongst various industries. Inventories of electrical equipment & appliances have fallen at a reduced 14.7% rate and machinery inventories fell at a still-firm 18.7% rate. Conversely, steep production cuts lowered furniture inventories at a 25.7% rate which was only slightly reduced. Inventories of primary metals also fell at a fairly stable 31.3% pace and computer inventory decumulation accelerated to a 18.1% rate during the last three months.
Factory shipments have started to rise moderately. On a three-month basis they're up at a 7.0% rate after the 40% plus rates of decline last Winter. The rate of decline in the machinery industry slowed to 3.1% after dropping at a 52.7% rate in March While in the electrical equipment sector the rate of decline slowed to 7.1% from 48.8%. Most elsewhere the rates of decline in shipments moderated substantially.
Finally, new orders have improved. The 1.3% increase during July was the fifth increase this year. It reflected a sharp monthly rise both in primary metals (-45.0% y/y) and electrical equipment (-20.2% y/y). Unfilled orders also fell at a sharply reduced 4.4% rate through July.
The Manufacturers' Shipments, Inventories and Orders (MSIO) data is available in Haver's USECON database.
Cross-Country Causes and Consequences of the 2008 Crisis: Early Warning from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco can be found here.
Factory Survey (NAICS, %) | July | June | Y/Y | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Inventories | -0.7 | -1.1 | -10.0 | 2.1 | 3.7 | 8.2 |
Excluding Transportation | -1.1 | -1.4 | -13.1 | -0.6 | 2.7 | 7.9 |
New Orders | 1.3 | 0.9 | -23.2 | 0.1 | 1.9 | 6.2 |
Excluding Transportation | -0.7 | 2.7 | -23.2 | 3.1 | 1.2 | 7.4 |
Shipments | -0.0 | 1.8 | -22.2 | 1.7 | 1.2 | 5.9 |
Excluding Transportation | -0.1 | 1.9 | -22.4 | 3.7 | 1.5 | 6.7 |
Unfilled Orders | -0.0 | -0.8 | -10.1 | 3.5 | 17.1 | 15.3 |
Excluding Transportation | -0.3 | -0.1 | -14.9 | -1.0 | 8.2 | 16.0 |