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Mixed Signals: Weaker Growth, Higher Profits
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Consumers spent more than expected in the first quarter of 2012, partly because they dipped into their savings, but businesses spent less.
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MELISSA BLOCK, HOST: This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Melissa Block.
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: And I'm Robert Siegel. The U.S. economy lost some steam during the first three months of the year. The Commerce Department reported today that growth to 2.2 percent. That's down from 3 percent at the end of last year. One reason was a slowdown in business investment. As NPR's Jim Zarroli reports, companies spent less on new equipment and software, even though profits were surprisingly strong.
JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE: The good news was that the U.S. economy continued to grow during the first quarter of the year. But anyone who was waiting for growth to kick into a higher gear was disappointed once again. Beth Ann Bovino is deputy chief economist at Standard and Poor's.
BETH ANN BOVINO: It really continues to show that this recovery is very half-speed. At least it's positive, but it's certainly very weak.
ZARROLI: There were some surprises in the report. Consumers spent more than expected, partly because they dipped into their savings. But businesses cut back on new investment and that happened at a time when many corporations were making lots of money. 72 percent of companies in the S&P 500 that have released first-quarter numbers so far had better-than-expected earnings. But Bovino says they held on to a lot of the cash they earned.
BOVINO: One of the jokes that I've had is that, well, you know, business has been able to, you know, take about 20 pounds of work and put it into a 10-pound bag. They're keeping their costs lean and certainly that's helping with profits.
ZARROLI: The drop-off in business investment is troubling because corporate spending has been one of the bright spots in the economy over the past two years. Brian Bethune, professor of economics at Amherst College, says it's helped compensate for the sharp drop in government spending. Bethune says federal, state and local governments have been cutting back and laying people off for several years. And he says that trend continued in the first quarter of this year, partly because of a decline in defense spending.
BRIAN BETHUNE, AMHERST COLLEGE: So we need the business sector to grow at above potential rates to offset that and that's the concern at this point - can this business sector really continue to crank out growth rates in excess of potential in order to keep the economy going?
ZARROLI: And that's a question the Federal Reserve is wrestling with. Bethune says Fed policymakers have sent mixed signals lately about how strong the economy is, and that sent interest rates climbing. But the weaker-than-expected March jobs report helped reverse that and today's report sent rates falling even further.
COLLEGE: The good thing is that interest rates have come back down again, so we're going to see mortgage rates move back down to record lows. That's very helpful for the housing market.
ZARROLI: The trouble is, mortgage rates have spent much of the past three years at historic lows, but housing prices have never recovered. Today's report is one more headache for the Obama administration, which is already sailing toward the November election with an albatross of a tepid economy around its neck. A White House spokesman cautioned against putting too much weight into a single report.
He also said the U.S. economy has enjoyed 11 consecutive quarters of growth, a sign that we're moving in the right direction. But, he said, the president understands there's quite a bit more work to do. Jim Zarroli, NPR News, New York. |
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发表于 2016-8-2 11:14:10