U.S.: Back To Normal?

The economic growth is expanding globally and few nations have already begun to unfold some of the recovery measures. So, after China and Australia, among the leading economic countries, also the U.S. has increased interest rates by 25 basis points. It should be the first step of the normalization process that will characterize this year economic scenario.


U.S.: normalization has begun


The U.S. economy is moderately, but consistently, moving out of the recent recession, as the manufacturing sector is witnessing the fastest seven months growth in more than ten years and housing stays supportive, despite some setbacks. In January, housing starts moved up 2.8% to 591,000 from 575,000 in December. At the contrary, permits fell slightly by 4.9% after having increased 10.9% the previous month. However, they are up almost 17% year-on-year, the highest point in the past six years. January’s up move was broad-based. In fact, both single and multiple components rose, while all the major regions of the U.S., except for the West, were in green last month. Industrial production moved instead at a 0.9% pace in January from 0.7% in December, while capacity utilization climbed to 72.6% from 71.9%, the highest level since December 2008. The manufacturing activity should support further job growth in the industry, after January’s first increase in almost three years. Companies will soon begin to reinvest excess cash gained from recession cuts into new hiring.