Research >> Economics
BTMU U.S. Business Barometer fell by 0.5%
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For the week ending September 19 2015, the BTMU U.S. Business Barometer fell by 0.5 percent to 98.3. The decrease in this week’s barometer was mainly owing to weak performances in production indexes, particularly in lumber production and electric output, which showed sharp falls of 8.2 and 10.5 percent, respectively. As to the consumption side, MBA’s purchase index bounced back by 9.1 percent, while chain store sales rose by 0.2 percent. However, those gains were not enough to offset the losses in production indexes.
On a year-over-year basis, the barometer remained flat, which compares to an average -3.3 percent decline over the Great Recession (ended in June 2009 according to the NBER). After flat lining 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 2013 slowed to 0.7 percent following 1.5 percent in 2012.
The smoothed version of the barometer, which attempts to account for weekly volatility, declined by 0.1 percent to 98.7. Its year-over-year growth rate was 0.3 percent.
Posted: October 1, 2015 Thursday 10:00 AM