Stats coming in Worldwide: No Recovery-Getting Worse

Friday, July 17 14:25:51
The slump in retail sales will force up to 25,000 more workers on to the dole queues this year, according to Retail Ireland, the IBEC group that represents the Irish retail sector. It projected that consumer spending will have fallen by about 9pc in 2009. "This is due to the impact of the two budgets, cross-border shopping and the recession generally," it said.
Lobby groups and economists today expressed concern and disappointment at the latest retail sales figures from the CSO.
The latest retail sales figures for May show a 1.2pc fall from April, which translated into an annual decline of 15.4pc in volume terms. While this represents a substantial improvement in the average decline of 21pc in the year to April, it is driven by the less negative rate of decline in car sales and masks a disappointing deterioration in core retail sales (i.e. excluding cars) in recent months, said Lynsey Clemenger, an economist with Ulster Bank.
She said the latest data points to "ongoing weakness rather than previously hoped-for stabilisation".

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July 17 (Bloomberg) -- China’s government failed to sell as much debt as it planned for the third time in two weeks on speculation the central bank will push up money-market rates to prevent bubbles in stock and property prices.

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California unemployment rate rises to 11.6%
The state lost 66,500 jobs in June and has shed 766,300 jobs in the last year.
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