It’s all about the jobs market April 29, 2012 By Natalia V. Osipova American consumers’ appetite continue to outpace salaries and wages. Analysts say they expect to see personal income figures for March rise 0.2 percent and spending rev up 0.4 percent. The Bureau of Economic Analysis will issue the official numbers on Personal Income [...]
Tag Archives | economy
Consumer Spending Accelerates, But Income Doesn’t Keep Up the Pace
MARCH 30, 2012 By Natalia V. Osipova Two months of solid consumer spending shows the U.S. recovery is gathering momentum. But it’s not yet time to celebrate. The disposable income of Americans in real terms was shrinking over the same period. So was the personal saving rate. The burgeoning gap gives an alert. Growing at the [...]
Gas Surcharges Haven’t Added To Commodities, CPI Shows
By Menglin Huang| Mar 16, 2012 Higher gas prices in February drove headline consumer prices up by the most in 10 months. But outside of energy, the inflation still remained in check. The consumer price index, or CPI, increased 0.4 percent last month, marking its biggest gain since last April, the U.S. Labor Department reported [...]
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Economic Growth Slow but Steady
Three consecutive months of job growth indicates that the economy has finally reached a point of stability, after gaining more jobs in the month of February. The private sector added 227,000 jobs with marked growth in professional services, health care and manufacturing and the unemployment rate was steady at 8.3 percent, unchanged from January. Though [...]
First Report on Personal Income and Spending in 2012 got a Weak Start
MARCH 1, 2012 By Natalia V. Osipova Americans saw their income rise again in January, but spending remained flat for the third month in a row. The report on personal income and outlays, issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today, made for a grim reading. Personal income rose slower than expected, by 0.3 percent, [...]
Retail Sales Up, Car Sales Down
Retail sales rose 0.4% in January, well below expectations in a sign that the economy isn’t recovering quite as quickly as economists would like to think. Since automakers had reported an increase in unit sales earlier in the month, the 1.3% drop in motor vehicle sales was the biggest surprise in this Commerce Department report [...]
The Upside to the Widening Trade Deficit
The U.S. trade deficit grew in December and overall in 2011 for the second year in a row, a sign the economy is picking up steam, say economists. From November to December, the trade deficit grew to $48.8 billion from $47.1 billion. Within that gap are signs of economic growth: an increase in U.S. imports [...]
Retail Sales Slip Following Holiday Season
Retail sales fell in January, as a slow job market and rising gas prices kept consumers out of stores following the holiday season. The advanced estimates for the United States retail and food service sales for January were $381.6 billion, an increase of 0.3 percent from the previous month, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures [...]
Jump in Producer Prices Raises Inflation Questions
Wholesale prices increased by 0.8 percent in January, exceeding some forecasters’ predictions. But economists said it’s too soon to sound the alarm on rising inflation, mostly because the overall economic recovery still remains weak. The increase marks the seventh consecutive rise, following a 0.9 percent advance in December and a 0.7 percent advance in November, [...]
