Are the trees coming into leaf?

Fridays flurry of positive economic signs from US and India GDP to Japanese factory output and British house prices to German retail sales...

Fridays flurry of positive economic signs from US and India GDP to Japanese factory output and British house prices to German retail sales raised hope the world economy was responding after months in intensive care. Though economists are quick to note even two swallows wont make a summer,the positive signs did boost the overall sentiment

In US,contraction contracts

US data showed the economy did less badly than government had feared in the first quarter,down 5.7 per cent instead of the initial forecast of 6.1 per cent,while corporate profits confounded analysts expectations of a heavy fall by rebounding 1.1 per cent. But economists remained cautious,noting that the American consumer was still under the weather,as corporate profits were improving through cost cuts rather than sales growth,but there was a glimmer of optimism.

The whirr returns to Japanese factories

Japanese factory output rose 5.2 per cent in April,the biggest jump in more than half a century,and manufacturers forecast further gains. The Japanese rise far outstripped the 3.2 per cent poll forecast,suggesting that not all of it was down to replenishment of run-down stocks,and that manufacturers were beginning to anticipate a recovery in demand.

Germany consumes

German retail sales figures pointed tentatively,and unexpectedly,in the same direction,with a 0.5 per cent month-on-month rise in April,while private consumption for the first quarter rose a similar amount,despite a 3.8 per cent contraction in GDP. The retail figures for March were also revised upwards.

In bleak Britain,a few bright patches

In Britain,the consumer confidence index remained steady at -27 after three months of gains. UK house prices also registered a surprise rise in May the second time in three months.

UBS India lead indicator rises for fourth month

Swiss bank UBS AGs lead economic indicator was up for the fourth consecutive month in April,pointing to a rebound in industrial activity by June 2009,it said in a note on Friday. Philip Wyatt,an economist at the bank,said the indicator had gone up from a record low of -2.08 in December to 2.5 in April 2009.

Markets like it

Stock markets were lifted across the globe. MSCI8217;s all-country world stock index was up more than 1 per cent to its highest since early November,with the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 up 0.9 per cent and MSCIs index of Asia-Pacific stocks up 2 per cent.