London, Aug 03: Upbeat figures from across Europe and Asia on Friday reinforced US evidence that global economic growth is slowly picking up after three years of business angst. British manufacturers reported a return to growth in their sector in July and even in European laggard Germany, retail sales rose and manufacturers said new orders had bounced up.
Japan’s manufacturing sector expanded in July at its fastest clip in a year; Hong Kong grew in July for the second month in a row after taking a drubbing from the SARS virus; and Malaysia’s prime minister stood by a bullish full-year growth forecast. It all added weight to evidence that an economic upturn is taking hold in the United States, where figures released on Thursday on gross domestic product and new unemployment insurance claims beat Wall Street’s expectations.

“Right across the board we’re seeing an improvement not just in business confidence, but that confidence is turning into new orders,” said Chris Williamson at NTC Research, which compiles European and Japanese manufacturing surveys. Financial markets will look for confirmation from the US manufacturing index compiled by the Institute for Supply Management. That is expected to bounce back to 51.8, showing renewed growth in the sector, from 49.8 in June.
“Obviously we need to wait for the ISM numbers but the data we’ve collected from the euro area, the UK and Japan are showing a consistent signal that the worst is over,” Williamson said.
US second-quarter GDP grew at an annual rate of 2.4%, beating forecasts of a 1.5% rise, but the outperformance was largely due to the fastest surge in defence spending in half a century. US payroll employment figures for July should provide fresh insights into the strength of the recovery. Derivative markets are pointing to a small rise of 16,000. Bureau Report