Economic Indicators
Economic indicators are various layers of statistics that provide insight and information into how an economy is functioning. An economist might use economic indicators to paint a picture of current economic performance, or make future economic predictions. As a team, we will profile six economic indicators: Consumer Price Index, Capacity Utilization, Unemployment Rate, Producer Price Index, Interest Rate, and Inflation Rate. Historic charts for each indicator are included in our Power Point Presentation. As we move forward, we will use this information to help us better understand our selected business, the airline industry.
Consumer Price Index (CPI)
The Consumer Price Index is published by the Federal Department of Labor for the purpose of measuring the cost of living in the United States. The index measures the general level of prices in a fixed basket of goods that are typically purchased by consumers. It translates the price of goods such as food, beverages, housing, apparel, transportation, medical care, and entertainment from what they were in prior years to what the same goods or services would cost today. The Consumer Price Index allows anyone looking at it to determine how much money they need to spend today in order to live in the same lifestyle they lived in previous years. The yearly change in percentage in the value of the index is one way of measuring the annual inflation rate. When the Consumer Price Index rises, it is an indication of an inflationary environment and that consumers will be paying more for the same goods or services than they had paid in the past. Conversely, when the CPI falls consumers will be paying less for the same goods or services than they pa...
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...//en.wikiped Wikpedia, Retrieved June 16, 2006 from ia.org/wiki/Northwest_Airlines).
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...formula is based on an arithmetic mean of the price levels in the two selected cities. In order to calculate the index for the two cities examined, the average price of each item must first be calculated. The prices are then compared in each town to the average prices. There is still another element to the calculation of the CPI that we haven’t discussed just yet, and that is not every product in the survey is as important as the other. For example, the cost of a vehicle is more important in determining the index than the price of a loaf of bread. The weights have been chosen on the basis of research that indicates while there are certainly differences amongst the various national spending patterns; there are some average figures that most companies accept. The chart below indicates the sum of individual weights allocated to each item composing the index categories.
CPI, or Consumer Price Index, was relatively steady during this period of time. There were only four months of negative CPI during 2000-2001. The highest point was in March of 2000 reaching 0.588, while the lowest point was found in October of 2001 at -0.337. This is the main measure of inflation in the United States, which is done by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Inflation means the increase in household spending necessary to maintain a constant standard of living. Also, Inflation in the economies of the currencies that are traded is an important factor to consider because it affects the relative value of these currencies internationally and because it can decide future policy adjustments by governments and central banks. Besides, Inflation is usually measured by governments that use groups of price levels for goods in different sectors known as price indices. These include measures such as a producer price index (PPI), which measures wholesale inflation, and a consumer price index (CPI), which measures inflation for consumers. Governments and central banks often use these indices to help decide their
Economic indicators are Governmental statistics, released on a regular basis, which indicate the growth and health of a country. Economic indicators often affect and influence the value of a country's currency. The Trade Deficit, the Gross National Product (GNP), Industrial Production, the Unemployment Rate, and Business Inventories are examples of economic indicators. We will be dealing with four specific indicators: interest rate, inflation, unemployment, and employment growth as well as Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Real GDP is so called because the affects of inflation and depreciation are accounted for in the figures.
There are very many different economic indicators that are used to analyze economic activity of a company, industry, country, or region. There are three different general trends (directions for prices or rates) in the economy. "Those with predictive value are leading indicators; those occurring at the same time as the related economic activity are coincident indicators; and those that only become apparent after the activity are lagging indicators. Examples are unemployment, housing starts, Consumer Price Index, industrial production, bankruptcies, GDP, stock market prices, money supply changes, and housing starts also called business indicators." (http://www.investorwords.com/1643/economic_indicator.html)
Macroeconomic environment: The airline industry has proven particularly sensitive to phenomena such as terrorist attacks, wars, outbreaks (SARS), drastic currency fluctuations, and the like. These phenomena tend to have a significant impact on the cost of fuel, overall demand for air transportation, tourism, etc.
using a price index measure a change in it. The basket of good has a
An economic indicator is a statistic of the current status of the economy. This can predict how the economy may perform in the future. Investors and other private or government organizations use this information as a tool to make business decisions. By gathering historical data about the economy and comparing it to current trends, one can compile a snapshot of economic fluctuations. The direction of an indicator may vary according to changes in the economy. The indicator can be leading, lagging, or coincident. Leading indicators are changes before the economy has recognized the changed. Lagging indicators do not change until a few quarters after the economy has change. Coincident indicators move at the same time as the economy (The Library of Congress, 2005). Some of the common indicators are GDP, Unemployment Rate, Inflation Rate, Capacity utilization, Auto sales, and Personal income. As the explanation of these six indicators will be use to forecast the future of the economy, the trend of these indicators will also be used to evaluate the economy's historical and future outcome.
As unemployment has remained relatively steady from 2003 to 2007, the Gross Domestic Product for the United States has increased. The Air Transportation Industry contributes an average of 0.4 percent to the GDP. However, has GDP has increased, the Air
The current state of the economy in the United States has been slow in recent months. While the economy is not currently in a recession, we may eventually fall victim to the first recession we’ve had in nearly ten years. The economy in general is showing growth, just not much. It will be difficult to predict what exactly will happen to the US economy in the future. Many economists do not agree on what will become of the economy. Some feel that we will begin a recession over the next year, and some feel that there is significant policy implementation that will allow us to dodge a recession and regain our economic strength. There are many factors that make up the US economy. The means in which I will discuss the overall growth and current status of the economy is by analyzing the Gross Domestic Product, and discuss the factors that cause it to rise and fall.
The economy in the United States was recently experiencing what is now called the Great Recession which occurred from December of 2007 to June of 2009. During this recession we experienced a decrease in our gross domestic product and experienced an increase to our unemployment. Since 2003 the American economy has been seen inflation rates as low as .1% in 2008 and as high as 4.1% in 2007. Rates such as these detail the increase and decrease in prices of products throughout the economy and has a considerable influence on the supply and demand of goods from cars to bread. In the past ten years inflation rates have continually seen positive values w...
For the individual who watches CNN a great deal, the term Economic Indicators well recognized. However, for the individual who chooses not to make CNN a primary station, the term Economic Indicators can be extremely confusing. Economist often use very unlike terms when referring to the fluctuating economy. Economic Indicators happens to be one of the many terms that they use. So, what exactly are Economic Indicators, and what purpose do they serve? In addition to the previous stated questions, are they really that important?
Inflation is one of the most important economic issues in the world. It can be defined as the price of goods and services rising over monthly or yearly. Inflation leads to a decline in the value of money, it means that we cannot buy something at a price that same as before. This situation will increase our cost of living.
There are many factors that affect the economy, inflation is one of them. Basically inflation is risingin priceof general goods and services above a period.As we see value of money is not valuable for the next years due to inflation. Today every country has facing inflationary condition in their economy.GDP deflator is a basictool that tells the price level of final goods and services domestically produced in an economy.GDP is stand for gross domestic product final value of goods and services, Furthermore GDP deflator shows that how much a change in the base year's GDP relies upon changes in the price level. . Inflation in contrast, how speedy the average prices intensity is increases or changes above the period so the inflation rate define the annual percentage rate changes in the level of price is as measure by GDP deflator more over GDP deflator has a advantage on consumer price index because it isn’t only based on a fixed basket of goods and services. It’s a most effective inflation tool to identify the changes in consumer consumption and newly produced goods and service are reflected by this deflator. Consumer price index (CPI) is also measure the adjusting the economic data it can also be eliminate the effects of inflation, through dividing a nominal quantity by price index to state the real quantity in term.
Airline industry is affected by no. of factors such as fuel price fluctuations, high fixed costs, strong influence of external environment and excessive use of marginal costing by carriers. Recessions in the industry tend to last longer, while recovery periods are generally shorter. Over the past nine years, it is observed that industry has made losses for five years and during the profitable years margins were on a lower end. The airlines industry is acutely sensitive to external events such as wars, economic instability, government policies and environmental regulations.