New Zealand growth almost stalls

22 September 2011 Last updated at 02:09 GMT About 180 people died in the February earthquake in Christchurch and many businesses were affected New Zealand's economy slowed to almost a standstill last quarter, sending the currency sliding.

Gross domestic product rose 0.1% in the three months to June, compared with the previous quarter, according to Statistics New Zealand.

It comes after a surprise acceleration in the first three months of the year despite a devastating earthquake.

The dollar slid as investors bet the weak figures mean the central bank will keep interest rates steady.

The data came in significantly below expectations, with the Reserve Bank of New Zealand projecting 0.6% growth in the three months to June.

Overstated?

However, analysts warned that the numbers may be giving a skewed idea of economic growth for the year so far.

"The data likely overstates the weakness in the economy, much like how the strength in [the first quarter] was overstated," said Khoon Goz of ANZ.

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There are risks globally but unless confidence in other things start sliding there is no other reason why we won't have a solid second half”

End Quote Robin Clements UBS Between January and March, the economy grew by 0.9%, said Statistics New Zealand.

"A more accurate picture is likely that the economy expanded at an underlying rate of 0.5% a quarter, which is in line with our view of where trend growth is."

The New Zealand dollar fell three quarters of a cent against the US dollar in early trade to $0.7975 from $0.8050.

Recovery on track

Thursday's data showed strength in the financial and farming sectors, but falls in construction and manufacturing.

Financial markets have been cautious of the continuing debt crisis in the eurozone weighing on an improving economy in New Zealand.

But analysts said they expect growth to return in the second half of the year.

"There are risks globally, but unless confidence in other things start sliding there is no other reason why we won't have a solid second half," said Robin Clements from UBS.

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US factory output growth slowing

15 September 2011 Last updated at 20:12 GMT Car producers saw a big rise in output in August US factory output rose for a second straight month in August, but the rate of growth slowed slightly in comparison with July, official figures have shown.

Factory output last month increased by 0.5% compared with 0.6% in July, said the Federal Reserve data.

Car output was the big riser, adding 2.6% as supplies from Japan return to normal following March's tsunami.

Overall industrial production, which includes the energy sector, rose 0.2%, weaker than July's 0.9% rise.

The Federal Reserve said earlier this month that stock market volatility and rising economic uncertainty were undermining confidence in the US economy.

It is expected to announce fresh measures to boost the economy following its next rate-setting meeting which begins on 20 September.

The US unemployment rate remains at 9.1% after no new jobs were added in August for the first time since 1945.

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UK retail sales see weak growth

18 August 2011 Last updated at 11:08 GMT More consumers are cutting back on their spending Retail sales grew only slightly last month, as cash-strapped consumers remained under pressure, figures show.

Sales volumes excluding petrol rose just 0.2% in July, a slowdown on the 0.8% increase in June, said the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Sales of household goods, clothing and footwear all declined.

Consumer spending continues be affected by a number of factors, including higher inflation, job losses and limited wage rises.

Inflation in July, as measured by the government's preferred Consumer Prices Index, increased to 4.4% from 4.2% in June. This is more than double the 2% target rate.

Meanwhile, the number of people unemployed in the UK rose by 38,000 to 2.49 million in the three months to June.

'Disappointing' data

Compared with July 2010, sales volumes excluding fuel were also 0.2% lower. When fuel sales are included sales were unchanged from a year ago.

The sales volumes data is adjusted by the ONS to remove the effect of inflation.

When the impact of inflation is included, sales in July rose in value terms by 0.8% from June, and by 4.3% from a year earlier.

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The outlook for retail does not look particularly rosy, concerns about the growth outlook and the decline in real wages are weighing on the consumer”

End Quote Victoria Cadman Investec The 0.2% rise in volume retail sales in July was less than the 0.3% increase expected by analysts, and was also lower than the 0.6% increase estimated by the British Retail Consortium earlier this month.

The ONS said volume sales of clothing and footwear fell 0.3% in July compared with June, with household goods declining by the same amount. Food sales were up 0.7%.

Since the start of the year a number of well-known retailers have gone into administration, including fashion chain Jane Norman, interior designer Habitat, and wine seller Oddbins.

Others such as Mothercare, entertainment group HMV and confectioner Thorntons have announced store closures.

David Kern, chief economist at the British Chambers of Commerce, said the latest official figures were "broadly as expected".

He added: "While disappointing, it is not surprising given the huge squeeze on disposable incomes as a result of higher food and energy costs and the government's austerity measures.

"These figures and other economic indicators suggest growth in the third quarter of this year is likely to remain sluggish, although fears of a new recession seem exaggerated."

George MacDonald from Retail Week says people are still buying goods such as iPads

'Limping along'

Nida Ali, economic adviser to the Ernst & Young Item Club, said the latest data was "more encouraging than expected".

She added: "Monthly sales growth was much weaker than June but, given that retailers had started their sales earlier than usual this year, any growth at all in July is very welcome, particularly in the current climate."

Investec analyst Victoria Cadman said UK consumers were "limping along at best".

"What leaps out is that consumers are unwilling to spend on big ticket items - household goods are down 4.1% on the year," she added.

"The outlook for retail does not look particularly rosy, concerns about the growth outlook and the decline in real wages are weighing on the consumer."

The UK economy grew by only 0.2% in the second quarter of the year, down from the 0.5% growth rate recorded between January and March.

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5 Ways Google+ Will Drive Social Video Growth

Already using Google+? Follow Mashable’s Pete Cashmore for the latest about the platform’s new features, tips and tricks as well as social media and technology updates.

Chris Schreiber is director of marketing at social video advertising company Sharethrough. Before joining Sharethrough, Chris worked in the Global Communications and Public Affairs Department for Google, helping design and execute communications strategy for key consumer applications and social media initiatives.

The new set of features offered by Google+ represents the next chapter for the social web, helping it move from a platform that facilitates conversation and content sharing to a mechanism that can deliver much deeper social experiences. This new forum for creating connected audiences will pay off big for brands that create great video content.

In particular, Google+ is opening up a number of different opportunities for brands to get their videos seen and shared. It’s quite possible that we will look back on the Google+ launch as a landmark moment for social video advertising, because of the new possibilities it created for people to share, co-view, chat and text about entertaining videos.

Here are five ways Google+ will help the social video industry.

While some have taken advantage of Facebook’s features to segment their personal friend network, many have let their friend pool remain one large network with whom they share everything.  This means that when they share a video on Facebook, it goes out to a very broad audience, which includes many people who won’t be interested. Some of us may also hesitate to share a video if it means that everyone in our network — including family and even co-workers — will see it.
The Google+ “Circles” feature, which offers an intuitive way to segment your friend groups, will ease the process of sharing creative brand videos with groups that you know will appreciate them. While I would normally be a little reluctant to share a video as absurd as Skittles Moneyshot with my widely varied Facebook friends, my newly created “Social Video Junkies” Google+ circle will appreciate it.

The Google+ Hangouts feature allows for live video chat in the same “room” as multiple friends.  Hangouts’ tight integration with YouTube allows for genuinely new social video group experiences.

We all love sharing hilarious videos with friends. The only thing better than getting comments on your Facebook feed or via email is to hear people’s laughter and reactions live, “in person.” Hangouts will offer a new real-time, collaborative viewing experience for social video campaigns, which will massively amplify the benefits of these videos for the brands that create them.

Now imagine you have created a Hangout with friends. You’re all hysterically laughing at a video together, but one of your friends is not online to join. Google+’s “Huddle” feature now comes into play. With Huddle, you can text groups of people or individual friends via the Google+ mobile app to let them know you’re gathering to watch a video.  When friends receive a new message in Huddle, Google+ sends a push notification to their phone.
Huddle stands to be a really interesting way to extend conversations that start at the desk and move into the mobile space. It’s a great way to connect a disparate audience around a good piece of content.

Data is king at Google. The Google+ Business profiles already promise to include deep analytics, and while little has been announced as yet, one can imagine that powerful new types of social data insights will become available to advertisers about their YouTube campaigns.

By providing rich data capabilities, Google+ could allow advertisers to gather new insights on the quantity and quality of sharing for their campaigns. Google+’s new collaborative features could also introduce interesting new data categories for advertisers, such as average co-viewing view length (how long a group watched a brand’s video together) versus individual view length stats or engagement metrics via Huddle (mobile) versus Hangouts (desktop). 

While the relationship between the +1 button, Google+ and Google Search is still being sorted out (probably even by Google itself), there are clearly going to be opportunities for advertisers to boost their search results with videos that go viral. Whether content is surfaced based on the +1s of people in your circles or through broad social sentiment around search results, popular social video campaigns stand to gain more search relevance as users interact with it. And once a great video gets discovered, Hangouts and Huddles are sure to follow.

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Mashable is the largest independent online news site dedicated to covering digital culture, social media and technology. With more than 50 million monthly pageviews and 3.6 million followers across social media, Mashable has one of the most engaged online news communities. Founded in 2005, Mashable is headquartered in New York City with an office in San Francisco.

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