World Perspectives

U.S. Consumer Spending, Financial Health Supports 2024 Economic Outlook

As WPI readers likely well know by now, U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an inflation- and seasonally-adjusted 1.6 percent rate in Q1 2024, which missed economist’s 2.4 percent expectations. The data sent shockwaves through U.S. financial markets with U.S. stocks and bonds opening sharply lower on Thursday after investors parsed through the implications of slower economic growth. The report suggests the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure (the personal consumption index) was likely firmer than expected in March, which may further delay the central bank’s planned interest rate cuts. The CME’s Federal Funds futures markets now predicts a 20 percent chance the central bank will hold interest rates ste...

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From WPI Consulting

Communicating importance of value-added products

Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.

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