Research >> Economics
DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer rebounded slightly by 0.1%
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For the week ending March 16, 2013, the DJ-BTMU U.S. Business Barometer rebounded slightly by 0.1 percent following a 0.2 percent decrease a week before. This week’s gain resulted from Chain Store Sales, which rose for two consecutive weeks by 1.3 percent and 0.7 percent in the prior week and reached the highest level in 2013. There were slight rises and falls in Production side indexes but had no major impact on this week’s barometer.
On a year-over-year basis, the barometer showed an increase of 0.7 percent, at the same rate from the previous week, which compares to an average -3.3 percent decline over the Great Recession (determined to have ended in June 2009 according to the NBER). After flatlining in 2006, and declining from 2007 through 2009, the barometer bounced back in 2010 to rise by 3.4 percent, which was the strongest increase since 1994 (+4.0 percent), but not so impressive when compared to an -8.0 percent drop in 2009. The rate of increase for the 2012 slightly slowed to 1.4 percent following 2.2 percent in 2011.
The smoothed version of the barometer, which attempts to account for weekly volatility, rose by 0.1 percent following a flat reading in the prior week. Its year-over-year growth rate was 0.6 percent.
Posted: March 28, 2013 Thursday 10:00 AM