More jobs albeit higher unemployment in US The US economy showed signs of recovery from the effects of the winter storms as employers added more workers than projected in February. The 175,000 gain in payrolls beat market forecast of a 149,000 reading. Data from the previous two months were revised higher. Employers added 129,000 jobs in January, up from 113,000, and 84,000 jobs in December, up from 75,000 initially estimated. The unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent from 6.6 percent as the number of people entering the job market swamped the quantity of positions available. An increase in the unemployment rate put it further away from the Fed’s threshold of 6.5 percent for raising interest rates The stronger-than-expected February’s jobs report eased concerns over soft US employment and other economic data seen in the past few months. The figure now pretty much guarantees that the Federal Reserve is likely to maintain the pace of tapering at its March 18-19 meeting. Weak data on Asian side China’s exports fell 18.1 percent from a year earlier, the most since the global financial crisis. Market expected a 7.5 percent increase by Bloomberg survey. Nevertheless, distortions in the data from the Lunar New Year holiday and fake invoicing that inflated numbers last year make it harder to assess the true picture. China’s inflation slowed more than estimated to a 13-month low in February. The consumer price index rose 2 percent from a year earlier compared with the 2.1 percent median estimate. The producer-price index also fell 2 percent, more than estimated, extending to 24 months the longest decline since 1999. Japan’s economy expanded less than estimated in the fourth quarter and the current-account deficit widened to a record in January, highlighting risks to Abenomics. Gross domestic product grew an annualized 0.7 percent from the previous quarter less than a preliminary estimate of 1 percent and a 0.9 percent median forecast. On the other hand, the current-account deficit widened to 1.59 trillion yen ($15.4 billion), a record in data back to 1985 Yen strengthened slightly against the dollar earlier today ahead of the start of a two-day Bank of Japan monetary policy board meeting. The Bank of Japan is expected to keep monetary policy unchanged as the economy appears on track toward modest recovery and a 2% sustained inflation aim. The governor of RBA Glenn Stevens gave a speech to Economics committee of House of Representative on Friday. “Our view has been that growth has been running below its trend pace.” Turning to consumer price inflation, the recent data show inflation in underlying terms at about 2½ percent over the course of 2013. Part of the increase in inflation is explained by the effect of the depreciation of the exchange rate. “On the whole, then, accommodative monetary policy is playing its part in supporting sustainable growth in demand, consistent with the inflation target.” the governor said. Focus of the week The US is to release data this week on retail sales (Feb) and preliminary result from the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment (Mar). Both are expected to show slight gains from the prior month. Meanwhile, Europe and China are to produce data on industrial production for the month of January and February, respectively. In Thailand, The Bank of Thailand’s Monetary Policy Committee is set to gather on Wednesday. TMB Analytics still maintain our view that the Board will hold its one-day repurchase rate at 2.25%, versus market expectations of a 0.25% rate cut to 2.00%, which is already sufficiently accommodative. น่าสนใจมากครับ # TMB analytics
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 03:44:25 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015