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Posts Tagged ‘commerce department’

Obama sees US economy improving

July 31st, 2009 | No Comments

Dollar notes

The US economy shrank at an annualised rate of 1% in the April-to-June quarter, government figures have shown.

The data was better-than-expected, with many economists predicting a slightly bigger contraction of 1.5%.

The pace of decline seems to be easing, after a revised 6.4% fall in GDP in the previous quarter, the Commerce Department said.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve’s influential Beige Book said US economic activity had "begun to stabilise".

Although, the second-quarter data was better than forecast, the Commerce Department said that the economy had shrunk by more than initially thought in the first quarter.

It has previously estimated a contraction of 5.5%. </p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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The beginning of the end

July 31st, 2009 | No Comments

New GDP figures suggest some hope for America’s economy. But the pain is far from over

FIGURES released by America’s Commerce Department on Friday July 31st confirmed what most had expected: America’s economy suffered yet another quarter of falling output in the three months to the end of June. The world’s largest economy shrank at an annual rate of 1% in the second quarter. At least as of June 30th, America’s economy was still contracting, thus the country’s deepest post-war recession was not over.

But the news has been greeted with something approaching relief. For one thing, the decline was smaller than many economists had predicted, and a lot less than the dramatic 6.4% annual rate of contraction of the previous three-month period. For another, there are reasons to hope that conditions improved in July. And some newly released data about earlier months give reasons to cheer too. …

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New US home starts surge in June

July 17th, 2009 | No Comments

A construction worker in California

The construction of new homes in the US rose 3.6% between May and June to the highest level in seven months, official figures have shown.

This is the second month in a row that housing starts have risen following a post-war low in April.

Compared with the same month a year ago, however, June starts were down 46%, the Commerce Department said.

The number of single family homes being built jumped 14.4% in June, the biggest jump in over four years.

The number of permits to break ground – considered an indicator of confidence in the building sector – climbed to its highest level since December last year.

Some analysts, however, urged caution in the wake of the stronger-than-expected data.

"This is another piece of data for those seeing the recession ending soon," said William O’Donnell, head treasury strategist at RBS Securities.

"But housing starts are still within the range of the past six months and the completion rate is still down," he said. </p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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