Research >> Economics
BTMU U.S. Business Barometer increased by 0.1%
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For the week ending August 29 2015, the BTMU U.S. Business Barometer increased by 0.1 percent to 99.1, following a fall of 0.1 percent in the previous week. This week’s barometer was mainly driven by strong performances in consumer indexes. The largest contribution to this week’s recovery came from MBA’s purchase index, which rose by 4.1 percent. Also railroad freight carloardings picked up by 1.0 percent. As to the production side, lumber and auto production went up by 0.6 and 0.8 percent, respectively. However, those gains were offset by losses in electric output and coal bituminous & lignite production.
On a year-over-year basis, the barometer showed a gain of 0.5 percent, 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, remained at 99.1. Its year-over-year growth rate was 0.4 percent.
Posted: September 10, 2015 Thursday 10:00 AM