A mixed bag
There have been quite a few economic indicators coming out in the past 24 hours or so, so here's a round-up.
Yesterday it was revealed that UK business investment fell by over ten percent sequentially in Q2 and by over 18 percent year-on-year. This is the biggest fall ever recorded of this metric, which has been measured since 1966, and contributed to the pound being at its weakest for a couple of months.
In spite of that, UK GDP in Q2 has actually been revised upwards, from a decline of 0.8 percent to one of 0.7 percent. This is a good indication of how dependent the economy is on consumer spend, with retail sales on an upward curve and the Nationwide building society reporting not only a continued rise in house prices, but an acceleration of that rate.
Furthermore, the Land Registry, which has no commercial interest in the exuberance of the UK property market, has announced house prices in England and Wales rose by 1.7 percent, the biggest monthly rise since 2004.
Further afield, the euro area Economic Sentiment Indicator and Business Climate Indicator have both continued to improve from nadirs earlier in the year, but remain historically low. In the US, consumer goods sales rose by 4.9 percent - considerably more than expected.
The news wasn't so good for technical consumer goods in Western Europe, according to market researcher GfK. Sales were down eight percent sequentially in Q2 and down 9.2 percent year-on-year.
Spend on IT products declined by 7.7 percent to €9.6 billion, but GfK reckons UK is one of the markets faring better in this area. Telco product spend was down 10.6 percent to €4.2 billion, but GfK noted sales of smartphones are showing an increase of more than 150 percent worldwide.
