Research >> Economics
BTMU U.S. Business Barometer rose by 0.3%
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For the week ending October 24 2015, the BTMU U.S. Business Barometer rose by 0.3 percent to 97.9. This week’s recovery was chiefly led by strong performances in some indexes. For instance, chain store sales picked up by 1.4 percent after falling for four consecutive weeks. Equally important was steel production, which bounced back by 1.3 percent following a loss of 1.7 percent in the previous week. However, the recovery was somewhat restrained by losses in some other indexes. Electric output and MBA’s purchase index, for example, dipped by 3.6 and 3.1 percent, respectively.
On a year-over-year basis, the barometer showed a loss of 0.2 percent, which compares toan 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 97.8. Its year-over-year growth rate was -0.3 percent.
Posted: November 5, 2015 Thursday 10:00 AM