US economy shows signs of higher consumer spending
Posted by Stephen Cline on March 1st, 2010The US economy seemed on its way to recovery, if one is to go by the fact that the manufacturing sector grew in the month of February, and consumer spending rose for the fourth month in a row. This seems to be rather encouraging, in a scenario where people have been closely watching economic events for any signs of recovery. There were other signs being seen in the US economy including factory data which showed that the expansion in US factor data was slower than in the previous month. Most of the growth and the encouraging signs occurred in the manufacturing sector, which has been rising on the back of internal as well as international demand.
On the other hand, US consumer spending data has been rather stubborn, as it has held on to its low growth, caused by lower employment. The unemployment rate has also been in the range of 9.8%, which it has risen to, from 9.5% the last time around. The US economy shed as many as 50,000 jobs in February, up from 20,000 in January. The economy had already shed 150,000 jobs in December, indicating that it will be some time before any improvement can be seen in consumer spending data.
Tags: consumer spending, US economy