March 8, 2024
United States:
Concentrated US Payrolls Growth Likely Masked Cooling, Bloomberg Economics Says
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics will likely issue another strong jobs report Friday, but one that shows hiring in February was concentrated in just a few sectors and masked a broader cooling in the labor market, according to Bloomberg Economics.
January’s nonfarm-payroll reading was a blowout number, but most other indicators suggest the job market is much less tight, economists Anna Wong, Stuart Paul and Eliza Winger wrote Thursday in a preview of the release. “We believe that’s the more accurate picture — and we expect the nonfarm-payroll data to increasingly reflect that in coming months.”
Europe:
ECB Officials Back June Cut With Some Keeping Door Open to April
Momentum is building for the June interest-rate cut that European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde flagged on Thursday.
Speaking a day after she stressed that additional data are needed before monetary easing can begin, and that “we will know a lot more in June,” policymakers echoed that prospect.
Asia:
Japan’s Household Spending Drop Complicates BOJ Rates Messaging
Japan’s household spending shrank the most in almost three years, casting a cloud over the economy’s growth prospects as the central bank mulls the timing for a widely expected interest rate hike.
Household outlays declined by 6.3% in January from a year earlier, the biggest drop since February of 2021, the ministry of internal affairs reported Friday. It was the 11th straight decline, and it was steeper than economists’ estimate of a 4.1% retreat. Spending fell 2.1% from the previous month.
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