US retail sales rose more than expected in April, helped by a surprise increase in motor vehicle sales.
The Commerce Department said total retail sales rose by 0.4% following an upwardly revised 2.1% rise in March.
Compared to April 2009, sales were 8.8% higher, and have now increased for seventh straight months.
The figures have increased hope that consumer spending, which accounts for two thirds of the US economy, will keep the recovery on track in coming months.
"This adds to a string of data we have received indicating that consumer spending is improving," said James Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group in Virginia.
Motor vehicle and parts purchases unexpectedly rose 0.5%, following a 6.7% increase in March.
Excluding this category, sales rose 0.4% in April after rising 1.2% in March.
US economic growth had initially had been largely driven by businesses replenishing inventories, but consumer spending grew in the first quarter at its fastest pace in three years.
Increased hiring
Meanwhile, another report on Friday - from the Federal Reserve - showed industrial production rose 0.8% in April, better than economists' prediction of 0.6%.
It means manufacturing also appears to be playing a leading role in supporting the economic recovery.
Stronger manufacturing has also seen factories increase hiring.
Last week, manufacturers added 44,000 jobs in April, the most since 1998.
Businesses that make fabricated metal products, machinery, electrical equipment and appliances, plastics, food, and paper products all posted job gains.
Sourced from The BBC
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Showing posts with label manufacturing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label manufacturing. Show all posts
Saturday, 15 May 2010
Sunday, 7 June 2009
NEW blog in development
[caption id="attachment_571" align="aligncenter" width="310" caption="allaboutgrub"]
[/caption]
- this blog is all about food, ingredients and where to buy good quality food from - add a marker to my allaboutgrub map to tell others about great places to eat out or places to buy great food from -
[/caption]Hi all, I have been developing a new blog please come and visit it
allaboutgrub.wordpress.com
- this blog is all about food, ingredients and where to buy good quality food from - add a marker to my allaboutgrub map to tell others about great places to eat out or places to buy great food from -
"go on share your food experiences with others"
NEW blog in development
[caption id="attachment_571" align="aligncenter" width="310" caption="allaboutgrub"][/caption]
- this blog is all about food, ingredients and where to buy good quality food from - add a marker to my allaboutgrub map to tell others about great places to eat out or places to buy great food from -
[/caption]Hi all, I have been developing a new blog please come and visit it
allaboutgrub.wordpress.com
- this blog is all about food, ingredients and where to buy good quality food from - add a marker to my allaboutgrub map to tell others about great places to eat out or places to buy great food from -
"go on share your food experiences with others"
Sunday, 8 February 2009
Manufacturing output falling at fastest rate since 1980s
Britain's recession-hit manufacturers slashed production in November at the fastest pace since the mid-1980s, leaving output below the level when Labour came to power in 1997 and signalling a severe contraction in the economy in the final quarter of the year.
Official figures released yesterday showed that manufacturing production declined by 2.9% in November. Exclu ding summer 2002, when celebrations for the Queen's golden jubilee caused a short-lived slip, that made it the weakest month since June 1985.
"As has been the case in many other economies, industrial activity in the UK has now fallen off a cliff," said Paul Dales, of the consultancy Capital Economics. He added that, in total, output had dropped by 7.8% from its peak, to a level last seen in 1995. "In other words, 14 years of gains in activity have been wiped out in just nine months."
Industrial production, which includes mining and energy as well as manufacturing, fell 2.3% in November, to a level 6.9% lower than the same month in 2007.
The fresh evidence of the parlous state of British industry will intensify demands for action from the government to support threatened firms and provide re-training for workers who lose their jobs. Gordon Brown will hold a "jobs summit" on Monday to outline his response to rapidly rising unemployment, and the Treasury is preparing a package of measures to unblock clogged credit markets.
Vince Cable, Treasury spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said the scale of the decline in output raised fears that the manufacturing sector would be so severely gouged that it would be unable to benefit from rising demand and the cheap pound once the worst of the downturn is over.
"If the British economy is now going to be restructured, then the traded sector will have to have a larger role, and this is ominously not a good start," he said. "We can't have an economy that is based primarily on pyramid-selling schemes in the City and on finance; a return to more solidly based things like manufacturing has to be part of the mix."
The worse-than-expected news from manufacturers underlined the speed at which the economy deteriorated in the final quarter of last year. The National Institute for Economic and Social Research said the fall in output pointed to a 1.5% contraction in gross domestic product in the three months to December, which would make it the weakest quarter since 1980. The respected thinktank added that there had only been five quarters in which output fell more sharply since quarterly GDP figures were first produced in 1955.
Steve Radley, chief economist at the employers' group EEF, said few sectors had escaped the downturn. "This is a sign that confidence has fallen right acoss the globe, and that all the major economies are affected," he said. He added that further layoffs among distressed manufacturers were likely in the coming weeks, after the announcement of 1,200 job cuts at Nissan's Sunderland plant last week.
Many carmakers announced longer-than-usual shutdowns over the Christmas holidays in response to a sharp decline in demand from consumers suffering from the credit crunch, but the new figures reveal that car production plunged by 21.7% in November, even before most of the emergency closures began.
The woes of British industry were echoed right across Europe in November, as firms slashed production amid plunging demand from consumers in all the world's major markets.
Industrial production in Germany slumped by 3.1% in November, and in France it declined by 2.4%. Analysts at RBS said that on the basis of these gloomy figures, industrial output in the eurozone as a whole looked likely to have declined by about 4% in the final quarter of 2008.
sourced from The Guardian
Tuesday, 13 January 2009
What are you giving up in the downturn?
It has been a tough December for retailers, and grocers have not been spared in the downturn.
But it is not just that overall sales are falling.
Canny consumers have been trying to make their money go further and that has meant changing the way they shop.
any of the lost sales suffered by retailers will not be from people who were considering buying something and then decided not to.
They are just as likely be from customers considering buying one product and then instead, buying a different one.
read full article scoured from the BBC
But it is not just that overall sales are falling.
Canny consumers have been trying to make their money go further and that has meant changing the way they shop.
 |
any of the lost sales suffered by retailers will not be from people who were considering buying something and then decided not to.
They are just as likely be from customers considering buying one product and then instead, buying a different one.
read full article scoured from the BBC
What are you giving up in the downturn?
It has been a tough December for retailers, and grocers have not been spared in the downturn.
But it is not just that overall sales are falling.
Canny consumers have been trying to make their money go further and that has meant changing the way they shop.
any of the lost sales suffered by retailers will not be from people who were considering buying something and then decided not to.
They are just as likely be from customers considering buying one product and then instead, buying a different one.
read full article scoured from the BBC
But it is not just that overall sales are falling.
Canny consumers have been trying to make their money go further and that has meant changing the way they shop.
|
any of the lost sales suffered by retailers will not be from people who were considering buying something and then decided not to.
They are just as likely be from customers considering buying one product and then instead, buying a different one.
read full article scoured from the BBC
Sunday, 11 January 2009
Q&A: What is a recession?
The dreaded R-word - recession - is in the air as every day seems to bring more gloomy economic news.
Many commentators are now openly talking about the current slowdown turning into a recession.
But how do economists define a recession and when will we know if the UK is going through one?
What is the definition of a recession?
This is a thorny question on which experts still disagree.
However, technically speaking, the UK economy would slide into recession when it experiences two successive quarters of what is known as "negative growth".
For this to happen, the total amount of goods and services produced by the UK - known as gross domestic product (GDP) - would have to contract on a quarter by quarter basis for a total period of six months.
read full article at The BBC
Many commentators are now openly talking about the current slowdown turning into a recession.
But how do economists define a recession and when will we know if the UK is going through one?
What is the definition of a recession?
This is a thorny question on which experts still disagree.
However, technically speaking, the UK economy would slide into recession when it experiences two successive quarters of what is known as "negative growth".
For this to happen, the total amount of goods and services produced by the UK - known as gross domestic product (GDP) - would have to contract on a quarter by quarter basis for a total period of six months.
read full article at The BBC
Q&A: What is a recession?
The dreaded R-word - recession - is in the air as every day seems to bring more gloomy economic news.
Many commentators are now openly talking about the current slowdown turning into a recession.
But how do economists define a recession and when will we know if the UK is going through one?
What is the definition of a recession?
This is a thorny question on which experts still disagree.
However, technically speaking, the UK economy would slide into recession when it experiences two successive quarters of what is known as "negative growth".
For this to happen, the total amount of goods and services produced by the UK - known as gross domestic product (GDP) - would have to contract on a quarter by quarter basis for a total period of six months.
read full article at The BBC
Many commentators are now openly talking about the current slowdown turning into a recession.
But how do economists define a recession and when will we know if the UK is going through one?
What is the definition of a recession?
This is a thorny question on which experts still disagree.
However, technically speaking, the UK economy would slide into recession when it experiences two successive quarters of what is known as "negative growth".
For this to happen, the total amount of goods and services produced by the UK - known as gross domestic product (GDP) - would have to contract on a quarter by quarter basis for a total period of six months.
read full article at The BBC
Saturday, 10 January 2009
Changing High street
As we see some of the most well known high street stores closing - are we seeing a new high street emerging. Will small independent shops start opening or will the highstreet be full of boarded up shops and for sale signs.
I am not that surprised that the high street is starting to showing of downturn. We have lived for best part of 10 years in a consumer fuel enviroment. As high streets up and the country were all starting to look the same. Do we need all these shops selling very simarly things and as we are all starting to do more amd more shopping on the internet, why do we need still high street outlets.
I am not that surprised that the high street is starting to showing of downturn. We have lived for best part of 10 years in a consumer fuel enviroment. As high streets up and the country were all starting to look the same. Do we need all these shops selling very simarly things and as we are all starting to do more amd more shopping on the internet, why do we need still high street outlets.
Changing High street
As we see some of the most well known high street stores closing - are we seeing a new high street emerging. Will small independent shops start opening or will the highstreet be full of boarded up shops and for sale signs.
I am not that surprised that the high street is starting to showing of downturn. We have lived for best part of 10 years in a consumer fuel enviroment. As high streets up and the country were all starting to look the same. Do we need all these shops selling very simarly things and as we are all starting to do more amd more shopping on the internet, why do we need still high street outlets.
I am not that surprised that the high street is starting to showing of downturn. We have lived for best part of 10 years in a consumer fuel enviroment. As high streets up and the country were all starting to look the same. Do we need all these shops selling very simarly things and as we are all starting to do more amd more shopping on the internet, why do we need still high street outlets.
Friday, 9 January 2009
The changing recession
Thank you for visiting my site. I am 31 years old and have been interested in this current downturn. I don't remember the previous recessions having much effect, but maybe it did.
The most noticeable element this time is the banking sector, house prices and the high street. The main difference is how fast paced everything is happening. Each day i watch the news something else has happened.
The most noticeable element this time is the banking sector, house prices and the high street. The main difference is how fast paced everything is happening. Each day i watch the news something else has happened.
The changing recession
Thank you for visiting my site. I am 31 years old and have been interested in this current downturn. I don't remember the previous recessions having much effect, but maybe it did.
The most noticeable element this time is the banking sector, house prices and the high street. The main difference is how fast paced everything is happening. Each day i watch the news something else has happened.
The most noticeable element this time is the banking sector, house prices and the high street. The main difference is how fast paced everything is happening. Each day i watch the news something else has happened.
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