Research >> Economics
BTMU U.S. Business Barometer dropped by 0.4%
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For the week ending August 15 2015, the BTMU U.S. Business Barometer dropped by 0.4 percent to 99.1. This week’s barometer was dragged down by weak performances in both consumption and production indexes. Chain store sales and MBA’s purchase index plunged by 1.8 and 1.1 percent, respectively. As to the production side, electric output declined by 3.3 and truck production plummeted by 1.3 percent after growing by 0.7 percent last week. Even though auto and steel production both increased by 0.4 percent, they were totally offset by losses in other production indexes.
On a year-over-year basis, the barometer showed a gain of 0.7 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, decreased by 0.1 percent to 99.3. Its year-over-year growth rate was 0.8 percent.
Posted: August 27, 2015 Thursday 10:00 AM