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TABLE-Recent Australian economic statistics
Reuters: [2008-05-16 00:00:00]
SYDNEY, May 16 (Reuters) - Table of the latest Australian
economic data.
Period Latest Prev1 Prev2 Next
Westpac/Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment
Index level Apr 87.4 88.6 97.4 May 20
Pct change(m/m) Apr -1.3 -9.1 -8.3
New Motor Vehicle Sales (pct)
Total (s/adj, m/m) Mar +1.0 +0.6 +1.1 May 21
Total (trend, m/m) Mar -0.1 +0.9 +0.8
Construction Work Done (s/adj, chain volume measure of value)
Total (q/q) Q4 -1.0 +2.2 -1.8 May 28
Total (y/y) Q4 +2.6 +8.9 +3.0
Private New Capital Expenditure (s/adj, constant prices)
Total Q4 +5.1 -6.2 +7.0 May 29
Total (y/y) Q4 +15.3 +9.0 +11.8
Private Sector Credit
Credit (m/m, s/adj) Feb +0.8 +0.6 +1.0 May 30
Credit (y/y, s/adj) Feb +14.9 +15.4 +16.2
Retail Trade (current prices)
Total (s/adj, m/m) Mar +0.5 -0.1 0.0 June 2
Total (s/adj, y/y) Mar +5.1 +5.8 +6.9
Total (trend, m/m) Mar +0.2 +0.2 +0.2
Company Gross Operating Profits
S/adj (q/q) Q4 +3.9 -1.4 +2.0 June 2
S/adj (y/y) Q4 +11.7 +8.4 +11.2
Business Inventories (volume measure, pct, s/adj)
Total (q/q pct) Q4 +0.7 +1.3 +0.4 June 2
Total (y/y pct) Q4 +3.9 +3.5 +1.0
Balance of Payments (s/adj, A$ billions)
Current Account Q4 -19.35 -16.352 -15.78 June 3
Goods, Services Q4 -6.86 -4.79 -3.85
Building Approvals (Total dwelling units)
(s/adj, m/m pct) Mar -5.7 -0.8 -2.8 June 3
(s/adj, y/y pct) Mar -0.7 +0.5 +7.5
(trend, m/m pct) Mar -2.1 -1.9 -1.6
International Investment Position (A$ billions)
Net foreign debt Q4 609.95 585.76 548.24 June 3
Net foreign equity Q4 126.87 97.81 105.20
Gross Domestic Product (s/adj, chain volume, percent)
GDP (q/q) Q4 +0.6 +1.1 +0.9 June 4
GDP (y/y) Q4 +3.9 +4.3 +4.3
Balance on Goods and Services (s/adj, A$ mln current prices)
G&S Balance Mar -2736 -3261 -2227 June 5
Goods Balance Mar -2844 -3380 -2479
Services Balance Mar +109 +119 +52
Exports (m/m pct) Mar +4.0 -4.0 +2.0
Imports (m/m pct) Mar +1.0 +1.0 +5.0
ANZ newspaper & internet job advertisements
(s/adj, m/m pct) April +3.1 -0.7 -2.1 June 10
Housing finance for owner occupation (pct)
Total (s/adj, m/m) Mar -6.1 +6.8 +3.8 June 10
Labour Force (s/adj)
Employment (000) Apr +25.4 +18.2 +39.1 June 12
- full time (000) Apr +19.0 + 5.5 +47.9
- part time (000) Apr +6.3 +12.6 -8.7
Unemployment (pct) Apr 4.2 4.1 4.0
Participation rate Apr 65.4 65.3 65.2
Dwelling Unit Commencements (s/adj, pct)
Total (q/q) Q4 +2.6 +1.3 -2.5 June 17
Total (y/y) Q4 +2.6 -0.8 -3.4
International Trade Price Indices
Imports (q/q) Q1 +2.2 -2.2 -5.5 Jul 18
Exports (q/q) Q1 +0.1 -3.2 -2.5
Producer Price Index (Final stage of production)
Final goods (q/q) Q1 +1.9 +0.6 +1.1 Jul 21
(y/y) Q1 +4.8 +2.3 +2.4
Consumer Price Index (pct)
CPI (q/q) Q1 +1.3 +0.9 +0.7 Jul 23
CPI (y/y) Q1 +4.2 +3.0 +1.9
Mkt sector G/S(q/q) Q1 +0.8 +1.1 +0.8
Mkt sector G/S(y/y) Q1 +3.5 +3.0 +2.5
RBA trimmed (q/q) Q1 +1.2 +1.0 +0.9
RBA trimmed (y/y) Q1 +4.1 +3.4 +2.9
RBA weighted (q/q) Q1 +1.3 +1.1 +1.0
RBA weighted (y/y) Q1 +4.4 +3.8 +3.2
House Price Index, weighted average of main cities
National (q/q) Q1 +1.1 +4.1 +3.7 Aug 4
National (y/y) Q1 +13.8 +13.8 +11.4
Wage Price Index (s/adj, pct)
All sectors (q/q) Q1 +0.9 +1.1 +1.0 Aug 13
All sectors (y/y) Q1 +4.1 +4.2 +4.2
Average Weekly Ordinary Time Earnings (s/adj, pct)
All sectors (q/q) Feb qtr +1.1 +0.8 +1.1 Aug 14
All sectors (y/y) Feb qtr +4.8 +3.5 +4.5
((Sydney newsroom, sydney.newsroom@reuters.com, tel:
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Keywords: AUSTRALIA STATISTICS/DAILY
RPT-POLL-Japan growth likely slowed to 0.6 pct in Jan-March
Reuters: [2008-05-16 00:00:00]
(Repeats May 9 story)
*What: Japan's January-March gross domestic product data
*When: 8:50 a.m., May 16 (2350 GMT, May 15)
*Growth forecast at 0.6 percent Q/Q vs 0.9 percent Q/Q in October-December
TOKYO, May 9 (Reuters) - Japanese economic growth likely slowed to 0.6 percent in the first quarter, a Reuters poll found on Friday, and analysts said the second quarter might bring a further slide in growth as a U.S. slowdown hits exports.
A weaker first-quarter expansion, at an annualised rate of 2.5 percent, would be due to a fall in capital spending, although relatively firm consumption and exports helped to keep the world's second-largest economy running above its potential.
"We will be able to confirm with the January-March data that economic activity remained firm at least until the first quarter, although the downside risk is high for the April-June quarter," said Yoshiki Shinke, a senior economist at Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute.
In January-March, corporate capital spending will likely log its first fall in three quarters, although housing investment is expected to have recovered somewhat from a slump caused by changes in building codes, which led to congestion in construction approvals last year.
"Capital investment in the manufacturing sector is likely to show a large decline in light of growing uncertainty in the outlook for the U.S. and European economies as well as falling profitability due to surging raw material costs," said Hideki Matsumura, senior economist at Japan Research Institute.
The relatively strong growth expected for Japan in the first quarter contrasts with that forecast for the United States, which has been suffering the fallout of the subprime mortgage debacle since last year.
The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 0.6 percent in the first quarter. Although that matched the preceding quarter and topped a forecast of 0.2 percent, many analysts say fears of a recession remain.
Shinke said Japan's exports have been stronger than expected as robust shipments of goods to emerging economies made up for lacklustre demand in the United States.
Although Japan's trade surplus in March marked the smallest year-on-year increase in three years partly due to a sharp rise in import bills as oil prices surged, exports in the financial year that ended on March 31 rose 9.9 percent, marking the sixth straight year of growth.
External demand is predicted to have boosted first-quarter growth by 0.5 percentage point, the Reuters poll of 36 analysts found.
The median forecast in the poll for GDP growth was unchanged from a smaller survey of 17 economists conducted last week. [ID:nT26424]
The analysts forecast private consumption, which accounts for more than half of economic activity, grew 0.6 percent in January-March, picking up from 0.2 percent in October-December and matching the biggest growth since the first quarter of 2007.
Many analysts said, however, that private consumption may be inflated as the data is not adjusted to account for the extra day in February in leap years.
Japan's economy grew a robust 0.9 percent, or an annualised 3.5 percent, in the October-December quarter, helped by firm exports and corporate capital investment.
Following are forecasts in percentages for preliminary GDP data for January-March, including the headline growth rate in price-adjusted real terms, private consumption and other components.
JAN-MAR GDP ANNUALISED CONSUMPTION HOUSING ---------------------------------------------------------------- Mitsubishi UFJ Sec 0.2 0.8 0.4 -0.1 UBS 0.4 1.6 0.3 0.0 Norinchukin Research 0.5 1.9 0.3 1.5 Daiwa SMBC 0.5 1.9 0.5 -3.8 Merrill Lynch 0.5 2.0 0.3 5.0 Japan Research 0.5 2.1 0.3 2.2 Mitsui Sumitomo AM 0.5 2.1 0.6 3.0 Deutsche Securities 0.5 2.1 0.5 5.6 Calyon 0.5 2.1 0.3 0.8 Mitsubishi UFJ Bank 0.5 2.1 0.7 2.2 JP Morgan 0.5 2.2 0.5 2.4 Mitsubishi Research 0.6 2.3 0.5 -0.9 Goldman Sachs 0.6 2.3 0.6 4.6 Barclays Capital 0.6 2.4 0.6 5.0 Daiwa SB Investments 0.6 2.5 0.6 -0.8 BNP Paribas 0.6 2.5 0.8 8.4 Mizuho Securities 0.6 2.5 n/a n/a
Lehman Brothers 0.6 2.5 2.4 14.8 BNP Paribas 0.6 2.5 0.8 8.4 Mitsubishi Securities 0.6 2.6 0.6 2.8 HSBC Securities 0.6 2.6 0.5 3.0 RBS 0.7 2.6 0.7 1.8 Daiwa Research 0.7 2.8 0.6 1.7 Credit Suisse 0.7 2.8 0.5 2.0 Nomura Securities 0.7 2.8 0.3 6.0 Nikko Citigroup 0.7 2.8 0.5 4.8 Informa Global Markets 0.7 2.9 0.6 5.0 ABN Amro 0.7 2.9 0.5 0.5 Dai-ichi Life Research 0.8 3.1 0.6 3.4 Shinkin Central Bank 0.8 3.1 0.5 4.6 Meiji-Yasuda 0.8 3.1 0.4 5.8 Morgan Stanley 0.8 3.2 0.6 3.9 Mizuho Research 0.8 3.3 0.7 6.4 Mitsubishi UFJ Research 0.8 3.4 0.6 0.8 NLI Research 0.9 3.8 0.6 4.4 Shinko Research 0.9 3.8 0.6 4.5 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Median 0.6 2.5 0.6 3.0 High 0.9 3.8 2.4 14.8 Low 0.2 0.8 0.3 -3.8
CAPEX EXTERNAL DEMAND* DEFLATOR --------------------------------------------------------------- Mitsubishi UFJ Sec -0.8 0.2 -1.4 UBS -0.9 0.4 -1.5 Norinchukin Research -0.8 0.5 -1.2 Daiwa SMBC -0.5 0.4 -1.5 Merrill Lynch -2.5 0.5 -2.1 Japan Research -2.2 0.7 -2.0 Mitsui Sumitomo AM -1.3 0.3 -1.2 Deutsche Securities 0.2 0.3 -0.7 Calyon 0.1 0.3 -1.2 Mitsubishi UFJ Bank -0.5 0.3 -1.4 JP Morgan -1.8 0.4 -0.5 Mitsubishi Research -1.0 0.4 -1.6 Goldman Sachs -0.8 0.4 -1.2 Barclays Capital -1.6 0.4 -0.5 Daiwa SB Investments -1.4 0.6 -1.7 BNP Paribas -2.1 0.5 -1.4 Mizuho Securities n/a n/a n/a Lehman Brothers -3.9 2.0 -1.6 BNP Paribas -2.1 0.5 -1.4 Mitsubishi UFJ Sec -1.4 0.5 -1.4 HSBC Securities -0.8 0.5 -1.4 RBS -1.5 0.4 -1.4 Daiwa Research -0.2 0.5 -1.5 Credit Suisse 0.0 0.5 -1.4 Nomura Securities -1.4 0.5 -1.2 Nikko Citigroup -1.0 0.4 -1.5 Informa Global Markets -1.1 0.4 -1.5 ABN Amro -1.2 0.5 -1.8 Dai-ichi Life Research -0.7 0.5 -1.5 Shinkin Central Bank -0.2 0.4 -1.4 Meiji-Yasuda -0.7 0.4 -1.6 Morgan Stanley -1.4 0.6 -1.5 Mizuho Research -1.0 0.4 -1.5 UFJ Research -1.5 0.6 -1.7 NLI Research 0.3 0.5 -1.6 Shinko Research -0.6 0.6 -1.5 --------------------------------------------------------------- Median -1.0 0.5 -1.5 High 0.3 2.0 -0.5 Low -3.9 0.2 -2.1
*percentage point of contribution to the overall growth rate. (Reporting by Shigeo Kodama, Akiko Takeda and Yuzo Saeki; Editing by Hugh Lawson) ((yuzo.saeki@thomsonreuters.com; +81 3 6441-1831; Reuters Messaging: yuzo.saeki.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: JAPAN ECONOMY/GDP POLL
Judge rules in Pinochet-era case of murdered singer
Reuters: [2008-05-15 23:56:00]
By Pav Jordan
SANTIAGO, May 15 (Reuters) - A judge closed the book on Thursday on the brutal murder of one of Chile's most emblematic folk singers, Victor Jara, but the family protested because only one officer from the 17-year dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet was convicted.
Judge Juan Eduardo Fuentes ruled that Jara was killed 35 years ago by retired coronel Mario Manriquez Bravo. But Jara's family's legal team say the Army is protecting a circle of others also involved in the murder.
Jara, a Chilean socialist and singer-songwriter often evoked by international music superstars, was tortured and machine-gunned to death in the early days of the coup that launched Pinochet's 1973-1990 dictatorship.
Pinochet died in December 2006 without ever facing trial for crimes during his rule, in which 3,000 people died, 28,000 were tortured and about 200,000 fled into exile.
"This is incredible, I was not expecting this," Joan Jara, Victor Jara's widow, told local radio. "I am very concerned that a case so emblematic should be closed like this. What happens to the other cases from the Chile Stadium?"
Jara was reportedly taken along with thousands of others to the Chile Stadium in Santiago on Sept. 12 1973, the day after the military coup began against the socialist government of Salvador Allende.
Witnesses say coup enforcers broke the bones in his hands and then told him to play guitar for them.
He is said to have responded by singing a socialist song to them before being tortured further and eventually machine-gunned to death.
"This has been a complicated investigation, looking at several theories, and finally all avenues of investigation have been exhausted and as such I have decreed the case be closed," Judge Juan Eduardo Fuentes told reporters on Thursday.
Fuentes had the responsibility of ruling who was responsible for the murder.
Jara's legal team said it would appeal the ruling, and said other officials in the Pinochet regime were also involved in the murder but were being shielded by the Army.
"We know there was a large circle of army officals involved," said Nelson Caucoto.
Manriquez Bravo, who was chief of security at Chile Stadium as the coup was carried out, is under house arrest and will be sentenced at a later date. The ruling can be appealed.
Chile has long grappled with bringing to justice the perpetrators of crimes committed in the Pinochet era.
The former head of Pinochet's secret service is in jail, along with some two dozen other security agents convicted of rights crimes. Hundreds of other former members of his security forces are under investigation and victims and their families say justice is dragging its feet in still other cases.
The memory of Jara, whose best-known song is "I remember you Amanda" -- which has been revived in Chile in a reggae version -- still brings tears to the eyes of Chileans who lived through the dictatorship.
(Additional reporting by Antonio de la Jara and Erik Lopez; Editing by Frances Kerry) ((pav.jordan@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: pawel.jordan.reuters.com@reuters.net; 562 370 4252)) Keywords: CHILE PINOCHET/JARA
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Reuters: [2008-05-15 23:55:00]
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Reuters: [2008-05-15 23:45:00]
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