Chinese-Dragon
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BBC News - US economy contracted in first quarter of 2014
The US economy shifted into reverse in the first three months of 2014 shrinking by an annualised rate of 1%, official estimates have shown.
It is the worst economic performance since the first quarter of 2011.
It is also a big fall on the 2.6% rise in economic output in the final quarter of last year.
The US Commerce Department's first reading of gross domestic product (GDP) showed the economy grew at an annualised rate of just 0.1%.
The fall in output was blamed on an unusually cold and disruptive winter - one of the coldest in the US for 20 years - and a plunge in business investment.
Economists estimate the weather could have cost up to 1.5 percentage points of GDP.
However, the Commerce's Department's report did not estimate the effect of the winter weather.
Rebound
The fall was also twice as big as economists expected.
Most Wall Street analysts had forecast the economy to contract by around 0.5%.
But the Commerce Department said there was already evidence that the economy was rebounding, with data ranging from employment to manufacturing activity already pointing to a sharp acceleration in economic activity in the second quarter.
Tumbling exports, while not as severe as initially thought, combined with stronger imports in the first quarter resulted in a larger than expected trade deficit which shaved 0.95 percentage points off US economic output.
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Out of China's $4 trillion in currency reserves, about $1 trillion is invested in US treasury bonds.
This is not a good tactic for us. Lending to America does not provide high returns from the treasury bonds, and encourages them to spend beyond their means.
We should redirect our reserves into buying real tangible assets, and America should control their spending more.
The last credit crunch was bad enough, we should not be encouraging another one.
The US economy shifted into reverse in the first three months of 2014 shrinking by an annualised rate of 1%, official estimates have shown.
It is the worst economic performance since the first quarter of 2011.
It is also a big fall on the 2.6% rise in economic output in the final quarter of last year.
The US Commerce Department's first reading of gross domestic product (GDP) showed the economy grew at an annualised rate of just 0.1%.
The fall in output was blamed on an unusually cold and disruptive winter - one of the coldest in the US for 20 years - and a plunge in business investment.
Economists estimate the weather could have cost up to 1.5 percentage points of GDP.
However, the Commerce's Department's report did not estimate the effect of the winter weather.
Rebound
The fall was also twice as big as economists expected.
Most Wall Street analysts had forecast the economy to contract by around 0.5%.
But the Commerce Department said there was already evidence that the economy was rebounding, with data ranging from employment to manufacturing activity already pointing to a sharp acceleration in economic activity in the second quarter.
Tumbling exports, while not as severe as initially thought, combined with stronger imports in the first quarter resulted in a larger than expected trade deficit which shaved 0.95 percentage points off US economic output.
-----------------
Out of China's $4 trillion in currency reserves, about $1 trillion is invested in US treasury bonds.
This is not a good tactic for us. Lending to America does not provide high returns from the treasury bonds, and encourages them to spend beyond their means.
We should redirect our reserves into buying real tangible assets, and America should control their spending more.
The last credit crunch was bad enough, we should not be encouraging another one.