Data Watch - March 30th & 31st

OECD and World Bank revised forecasts
- OECD's new forecast is for member countries to contract 4.3% this year, down from its earlier forecast of -0.3% (2009 forecasts for Japan -6.6%, euro area -4.1%, U.S. -4.0%)
- World Bank's new forecast for global growth is down to -1.7%, down 2.6% from its last forecast, while its forecast for developing countries was marked down to 2.1%, from 4.4%

CANADA
- GDP for January came in as expected at -0.7% MoM after -1.0% MoM in December and -0.7% in November
- StatsCan released its payroll employment report for January; payroll employment decreased 117,000 in January, the largest drop since 1991; average weekly earnings have increased 3.2% in the last year

US
- Case/Shiller home prices for January were a bit lower than expected; for the Composite-20 index, home prices are down 19% YoY and down 29% from the peak
- Chicago PMI, the last major regional report before ISM, weakened to 31.4; the regional surveys have sent mixed signals
- Consumer confidence rebounded slightly to 26.0 from the 25.3 record low in February, not as big a bounce as had been hoped for; the present situation components continued to deteriorate, but the 6-mth forward expectations improved a bit; employment prospects worsened, and plans to buy a house, car or major appliance were scaled back

INTERNATIONAL
Japan
- vehicle production was down 56% YoY
- industrial production was down 9% in February and 38% YoY
- household spending was down 3.5% YoY, better than the -4.7% expected
- housing starts down 24.9% YoY
- construction orders also down 24.9% YoY
- Nomura/JMMA purchasing managers index better than expected, up to 33.8

Europe
- Eurozone economic confidence for March fell to 64.6, consumer confidence also fell further to -34, industrial confidence fell to -38, and services confidence to -25, all new lows since the series started in 1988
- Eurozone retail PMI, however, rebounded off lows of 40.6 in November to 44.1
- German unemployment in March increased more than expected; the unemployment rate climbed to 8.1%
- Eurozone CPI was 0.6% YoY, down from 1.2% in February