Malaysia’s export slump deepens
Malaysia’s exports fell for the seventh month, extending the longest slump since 2002 and bringing Southeast Asia’s third largest economy closer to a recession.

Overseas shipments dropped 26.3% in April from a year earlier to RM41.1 billion after declining a revised 15.7% the previous month, the trade ministry said in a statement last Friday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of 15 economists had been for a 21.8% fall. Shipments from Malaysia to Singapore, China, the US and Japan, its four largest markets, dropped in April from a year earlier as commodity and electronics sales fell, the trade ministry said.

US unemployment rises to 9.4%
US job cuts slow in May but its unemployment rate climbed to 9.4% — the highest since 1983 — up from 8.9% in  April.  

US employers cut 345,000 jobs, including 120,000 in the services sector, 156,000 in manufacturing and 59,000 in the construction sector, the Labour Department said. 

New jobless claims fell by 4,000 to 621,000 in the week ending May 30, the Labour Department said last Thursday. The decline was in line with economists’ expectations and marked the third consecutive week with fewer new claims.

Thus, the number of people claiming unemployment in the US fell back for the first time since the start of the year. Continuing claims fell by 15,000 to 6.73 million from a revised 6.75 million the week before. The insured unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5%.

UK house prices reverse decline
House prices in UK rose 2.6% from April, the strongest gain since October 2002, but were still 16.3% below year-earlier levels, the Halifax Building Society said. In April, prices dropped 1.7% from March and 17.7% from a year earlier, added Halifax. Economists were expecting a monthly decline of 0.6% and an annual drop of 17.2%.

Retail sales in euro inches up
Retail sales in the 16 countries that use the euro rose in April for the first time since September last year, boosted by sales of food, drinks and tobacco, according to the European Union’s statistics agency.
In the breakdown of retail sales by country, sales in Germany rose 0.5% in April from May but fell 0.2% in Spain over the same period. Official French data also showed a 0.6% m-o-m rise in consumer spending in April.
 
Japan capital spending plunges
Japanese companies cut spending at the fastest pace in 54 years as a slump in global demand eroded their profits, leaving less money for plant and equipment.

Japan’s Ministry of Finance says companies’ capital spending, excluding software, fell 25.4% in the three months ended March 31 from a year earlier, the biggest drop since the government started the survey in 1955, according to Bloomberg. Corporate profit tumbled a record of 69%. The Japanese government will use the data on capital spending to revise the country’s GDP, which is expected to be released on June 11.

Singapore’s Purchasing Managers Index up
Singapore’s Purchasing Managers Index, a leading indicator for manufacturing, showed the industry is back on expansion track in May — the first time in eight months, thanks to a rebound in new domestic and export orders.

The Singapore Institute of Purchasing & Materials Management says its Purchasing Managers Index stood at 51.2 in May, a steady climb from 49.2 in April and 47.1 in March. A reading above 50 points indicates that manufacturing industries are expanding. The rise was in line with a manufacturing expansion in other trade-dependent Asian economies.

Australian economy grows
Australia’s economy grew in 1Q2009 as exports and consumer spending increased. The nation’s GDP rose 0.4% in 1Q2009 after it contracted a revised 0.6% in 4Q2008, the Bureau of Statistics said.

Record interest rate cuts and more than A$12 billion in government handouts to consumers helped to fuel growth.

Among evidence that Australia is weathering the global slump, building approvals jumped twice as much as forecast in April, and the current account deficit narrowed in 1Q2009 as agricultural exports surged.



This article appeared in The Edge Malaysia, Issue 758, June 8-14, 2009