Reuters reports the rebound in US industrial production:
Cold weather in February boosted overall output at U.S. industrial outlets 0.7 percent, the Federal Reserve said on Friday, in line with forecasts and up from a downwardly revised 0.3 percent decline in January... Utility production rebounded 7.9 percent as weather moved closer to seasonal norms after January's balmy temperatures...
[C]apacity utilization...rose slightly less than expected to 81.2 percent. That was a return to December's capacity use rate, which was the highest since September 2000.
...and steadying consumer confidence:
The University of Michigan's confidence index held steady at 86.7 in mid-March, which was below analysts' median forecast of 88.0... Consumer expectations on inflation one year out rose to 3.2 percent from 3.0 percent in March.
On the other hand, in Europe, Eurostat reports that industrial production in both the euro zone and EU25 flattened in January -- although they were up 2.5 percent and 2.4 percent respectively when compared to January 2005 -- while growth in hourly labour costs in the fourth quarter of 2005 picked up to an annual rate of 2.4 percent in the euro zone and 2.9 percent in the EU25, up from 2.3 percent and 2.2 percent in the third quarter respectively.
No comments:
Post a Comment