Friday, February 13, 2009

Surveys Say Gloom Deepens

From the Financial Times:

Consumers, economists and corporate executives are feeling increasingly gloomy about the state of the US economy, new surveys revealed.

According to the Reuters/University of Michigan index released on Friday, US consumer sentiment fell by 5 percentage points, to 56.2 in February from 61.2 last month. The results were worse than forecasters expected and left it just short of last November’s record low reading of 55.3.

The grim outlook was reinforced on Friday by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Its survey of 43 forecasters predicted that the US economy would contract by 5.2 per cent in the first quarter of this year, reflecting a downward revision from three months ago when they expected a contraction of 1.1 per cent.

Imagine that! A contraction in GDP of more than 5%!

Read the entire article here:

New Surveys Reinforce U.S. Economic Gloom