Wednesday 30 July 2014

US home prices fall but consumer confidence highest since 2007

Economic data on Tuesday were mixed.

In the US, home prices fell in May, with the S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 cities declining 0.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis, its first fall since January 2012. However, the Conference Board's consumer confidence index rose to 90.9 in July, the highest level since October 2007, from 86.4 in June.

In Japan, the unemployment rate rose to 3.7 percent in June from 3.5 percent in May. However, the ratio of job offers to job seekers hit 1.10 in June, the highest since June 1992.

Japanese household spending fell 3.0 percent in June from the previous year. However, this was an improvement over the 8.0 percent and 4.6 percent declines in May and April respectively.

In the UK, mortgage approvals jumped 8 percent to 67,196 in June. However, lending to non-financial businesses fell by 3.4 billion pounds in June, its biggest fall since November last year, while unsecured lending to consumers rose by 418 million pounds, the smallest increase since January 2013.

No comments:

Post a Comment