US Silver production declines sharply in Feb: USGS
May 12, 2012 by Laura Reveley · Leave a Comment
NEW YORK (Commodity Online): United States mined silver production declined by 9% versus last year and was down 6% versus January’s levels, as per latest data released by the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
According to USGS, Country’s mines produced 77,500 kilograms of silver in February. Production in Nevada was estimated at 15,500 kg in February versus January’s revised estimate of 15,100 kg.
Production in other states was 62,000 kg, down from January’s figure of 67,400 kg. The average daily production rate in February was 2,670 kg.
Fact of the day, US government workers edition
May 5, 2012 by Laura Reveley · Leave a Comment
Government workers account for 9.1% of the working age population, equaling the lowest share on record. When this government employment share of the population was last witnessed in 1984, it was alleviated in part by a massive surge in government spending, with yearly real federal spending topping out at 10.6% in 1985. Yet such an offset seems unlikely in the quarters ahead, as major government spending increases in the current political climate are verboten.
Thats via Moodys Analytics, and this is mostly a state and local government story, with federal government jobs staying roughly flat since the end of the recession when excluding temporary census hiring.
The only silver lining is that the decline might have bottomed, with government payrolls adding 4,000 employees in the first quarter after a decline of 265,000 jobs last year, as tax receipts have rebounded.
Italy’s Mario Monti seeks Chinese investment, says reforms working
April 13, 2012 by Laura Reveley · Leave a Comment
BEIJING — Italian Premier Mario Monti urged China on Saturday to step up investment in Italy and tried to reassure Beijing that the euro zone debt crisis was close to resolution and tough economic reforms passed by his government were working.
Speaking after meetings with officials including Premier Wen Jiabao and the head of the China Investment Corp. , Lou Jiwei, Monti said there had been clear interest in greater cooperation but he had no concrete measures to announce.
“I don’t want to be too ambitious but my hope is to generate some new enthusiasm on Italy,” he told reporters.
“We underlined one of the aspects which in our judgment should be reinforced, the aspect of investment,” he said.
On the last leg of a tour that included Kazakhstan, South Korea and Japan, Monti reiterated remarks he had made in Tokyo — that the worst of the euro zone debt crisis appeared to have been resolved.
“No one can say the eurozone crisis is totally over, and I think it would also be a dangerous attitude for Italian policy if we were to come into a state of complacency,” he told reporters.
But he said the crisis was “virtually over” and fears that Italy could become a new flashpoint had eased since the turmoil last year which swept away Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and brought Monti’s technocrat government to power.
“This so far has not happened, and I believe it will not happen. So allow me no comp
The real commodity winners and losers in Q1 2012
April 5, 2012 by Laura Reveley · Leave a Comment
LONDON (Commodity Online): As the first quarter of 2012 comes to a close, we take a look at the winners and losers during the first three months. It was a quarter that was driven by geopolitical risk, sovereign debt worries and contradicting signs on the economic progress of different regions, said Saxo Bank in a quarterly commodity research note. While the US stock market roared ahead – regaining pre-Lehman levels in the process – Europe was left in the doldrums and Asian economies began to worry about the implications of an increasingly visible Chinese slowdown, they added.
According to the bank, the two major commodity indices showed generally weak returns, as performance began to suffer during March. That’s when it became apparent that China, which represents more than 40 percent of global consumption and more than 50 percent of global consumption growth, was slowing down. T
US Q4 GDI up 4.4%, GDP unchanged from 2nd estimate at 3%
March 28, 2012 by Laura Reveley · Leave a Comment
So much for the Okuns Law mystery?
Those who think Gross Domestic Income, whose first quarterly estimate arrived in the same release the third estimate of GDP, is the more useful growth measure of the two will be encouraged by this:
Real gross domestic income , which measures the output of the economy as the costs incurred and the incomes earned in the production of GDP, increased 4.4 percent in the fourth quarter, compared to an increase of 2.6 percent in the third.
Well be discussing in more detail during Markets Live, but neither real GDP growth of 3 per cent nor the Personal Consumption Expenditure price index of 1.1 per cent changed from the second estimate.
So thats quite a divergence between GDP and GDI. GDI growth in the third quarter was also revised from 0.2 up to 2.6 per cent.
This brings full-year 2011 GDI growth to 2.1 per cent, better than full-year GDP of 1.7 per cent.
And in the second half of the year, GDP grew at an annualised 2.4 per cent while GDI grew 3.5 per cent .