Some Really Ugly Data
February 18, 2009
Among the myriad of bad economic figures, a few from the recent past really stick out.
- The weakness of industrial production in Eastern Europe was exemplified by month-on-month drops of 19% in Romania and 20% in Russia.
- The volume of Canadian wholesale sales plunged 24.5% at an annualized rate over the three months between September and December.
- Japanese export volumes of goods and services plummeted 45% at an annualized rate (saar) last quarter.
- Euroland exports fell 35.3% saar in the three months from September to December.
- Japan’s ratio of inventories to shipments soared 33.4% between December 2007 and December 2008.
- Real GDP last quarter dropped 12.7% saar in Japan, 8.2% in Germany, 7.1% in Italy, 5.9% in both Euroland and Britain and probably at least 5% in the United States when the initial 3.8% decline based on incomplete information gets revised. For advanced economies collectively, there has not been as bad a quarter since 1Q74. Taiwan today reported an 8.4% on-year decline of GDP last quarter, 7.3 percentage points worse than the on-year growth rate in 3Q08. The IMF projects the weakest calendar year global growth rate since World War II.
- From record highs, the DJIA, Nikkei, Ftse and Dax are down by 46.7%, 80.6%, 42.4%, and 48.4%.
Copyright 2009 Larry Greenberg. All rights reserved. No secondary distribution without express permission.
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What are your thoughts about some country’s walking away from the Euro. First, is that possible. Second, what are the implications for the single country and the entire Euro?
[…] 19, 2009 · No Comments This question to Currency Thoughts from Bgin2end is sure timely. George Soros addresses one element of the issue in an Op-Ed piece of […]
Good and timely questions. See my response in a post on February 19th.