May 2008

Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property in the U.S. -increased at an annual rate of 0.9 percent in the first quarter of 2008, according to preliminary estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the fourth quarter, real GDP increased 0.6 percent.
 
The GDP estimates released today are based on more complete source data than were available for the advance estimates issued last month. In the advance estimates, the increase in real GDP was 0.6 percent.
 
The increase in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE) for services, exports of goods and services, federal government spending, and private inventory investment that were ...

China's trade surplus declined by 8%, from $62.9 billion to $58 billion, from January-April 2008 compared year-over-year with 2007, the result of higher oil prices and other crude materials imports, yet the surplus for manufactures surged by 34%, according to a Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI analysis of Chinese trade data for the first four months of the year. China's worldwide trade surplus in manufactured goods is on track to rise from $444 billion in 2007 to $586 billion in 2008.
 
Ernest H. Preeg, MAPI Senior Fellow in Trade and Productivity and author of India and China:  An Advanced Technology Race and How the U.S. Should Respond, also notes that the Chinese surplus was down by 2% with the U.S. but rose by 26% ...

Source: Statistics Canada
 
Canadian wholesalers reported a modest rebound in sales in March, helped by higher deliveries of building supplies and machinery and electronic equipment. However, the increase was not enough to prevent a second consecutive quarterly decline in sales.

Sales increased by an estimated 0.6% to $42.7 billion, recouping some of the 2.1% decline reported in February.

On a quarterly basis, wholesale sales fell 0.8% in the first quarter, following a 0.3% decline in the fourth quarter of 2007. First quarter sales were affected by a large drop in the motor vehicles trade group, which registered its fourth consecutive quarterly decline, as well as continued weakness in the beleaguered lumber ...