Reuters: Economy was wavering before Katrina [View All]

[UpInArms]

http://today.reuters.com/investing/FinanceArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2005-09-22T171246Z_01_MOR248331_RTRUKOC_0_US-ECONOMY.xml

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The U.S. economy may have been losing steam even before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in late August, a gauge of likely future conditions showed on Thursday as Hurricane Rita bore down on the Texas oil patch.

Leading economic indicators fell by 0.2 percent in August, slightly less than the median forecast for a 0.3 percent decline, according to the New York-based Conference Board.

Katrina's fallout on the jobs market continued as weekly U.S. jobless claims spiked to the highest in over two years.

July's indicators were revised to show a 0.1 percent drop from an original 0.1 percent increase.

The index has risen only 1.9 percent over the past year.

As recently as March 2004 the year-on-year growth rate was 10 percent, said Steven Wood, economist at Insight Economics.

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