Germany returns to growth, but US retail sales and factory output fall – business live

Germany’s economy has returned to growth, but retail spending has fallen in China and the USLatest: US retail sales disappointChinese retail sales growth hits 16-year lowIntroduction: Germany grew by 0.4% in last quarterConsumer spending, construction and equipment investment all helpedMinister: It’s a ray of hopeGermany had shrunk in Q3 2018, flat in Q4 2.34pm BST OOF! US factory output has fallen, for the third time in four months.Most major market groups posted decreases in April. The production of consumer goods fell 1.2 percent, with declines for both durables and nondurables. The index for durable consumer goods moved down 0.8 percent, mostly because of a drop in the output of automotive products, while the output of nondurables was held down by sizable declines for both chemical products and consumer energy products.Production decreased for business equipment, construction supplies, and business supplies, but output advanced for defense and space equipment and for materials. Among the components of materials, a drop for durables was more than offset by gains for nondurable and energy materials. 2.15pm BST The surprise 0.2% fall in US retail sales last month is a worrying sign, say economists.Andrew Hunter of Capital Economics points out that demand for clothes, computing goods was weak, as was online shopping.The decline in headline sales values came despite a near-2% m/m rise in gasoline station sales, following the 6.3% m/m surge in prices last month.That was outweighed by a fairly sharp 1.1% m/m fall in motor vehicle sales. Even excluding those more volatile items, however, control group sales were unchanged last month, held down by weakness in electronics, clothing and non-store retail salesUS #retail sales miss w/ -0.2% in April:- (expected) weakness in #auto sales (-1.1%)- unexpectedly weak sales electronic stores (-1.3%) & building material/garden equip (-1.9%)- online & clothing -0.2%- gasoline +1.8% (due to prices)- core retail sales disappointingly flat pic.twitter.com/UOKuq6kInAMomentum in the #retail sector has cooled in recent month driven by softer auto sales and reduced #housing activity constraining furniture & building equip sales.Clothing & online sales also softer.> #Consumer spending not as bad as Q1 indicated, but definitely softer than 2018 pic.twitter.com/j5dr63zgAjPutting aside the tariff debate (which hasn’t previously impacted most retail goods manufactured in China), today’s retail sales data is a verdict on the ability of wholesalers/retailers to pass through intermediate price increases to consumers.And the verdict is: they can’t. Continue reading…
Via: Germany returns to growth, but US retail sales and factory output fall – business live