Flash index on hold in July after 13 increases
URBANA — The University of Illinois flash index stalled at 97.8 in July, after 13 consecutive months of increases.
The index — which reflects growth in Illinois personal income, consumer spending and corporate earnings — hit a low of 90 in September 2009 and has climbed each month since May 2010.
But it remains below 100, considered the dividing line between economic growth and economic contraction.
Economist J. Fred Giertz, who compiles the index for the UI's Institute of Government and Public Affairs, said other measures of the Illinois and national economy have been negative recently.
Unemployment increased in June in Illinois and nationally over May, he noted. Gross domestic product grew only modestly during the second quarter, he added.
Giertz said some observers have suggested the slowdown may be only transitory, because it's tied to spikes in energy prices and supply-chain interruptions stemming from the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
"Only time will tell if this analysis is correct," he said.
Individual and corporate income tax receipts in July were down slightly from the same month last year, when adjustments were made for inflation. Sales tax receipts, however, were up.
The flash index is a weighted average of growth rates in corporate earnings, consumer spending and personal income.
Tax receipts from corporate income, personal income and retail sales are adjusted for inflation before the growth rates are calculated.
If the tea-baggers are really concerned with jobs, why do they want to kill the government? Don't they understand that those are jobs as well? The jobs numbers have been dismal the last few months because government employment numbers are tanking.
I see that now the repugs are doing all they can to stop funding to the FAA, and thanks to one Republican senator there might be 4,000 FAA employees that won't receive another paycheck until September. On top of that, the FAA also employs contractors (that's the much hyped 'private sector' that the repugs love) and they won't be getting paid either.
What is wrong with these people?
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