Central bankers see an economic turnaround coming -- though not just yet.
"We are, as far as growth is concerned, around the inflection point in the cycle," European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said at a news conference on Monday after a regular meeting of global central bankers in Basel, Switzerland. Mr. Trichet is chairman of the group.
Bolstering that view, data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on Monday showed that some of the world's leading economies may be on the path to recovery.
The link to the OECD data is here.
Here is the table of the various countries and regions:
Click for a larger image.
Notice that four countries are highlighted -- France, Italy, China and the UK. Here are the charts for their respective leading indicators:
Click on all for a larger image
NOW -- let's be very cautious about this information as there are still big problems out there. The leading indicators for other parts of the world -- like the US -- are still heading lower. So we are no where near out of the woods yet. For example:
Across the 16-nation euro zone, dismal industrial-production data Monday underscored the severity of the first-quarter slowdown.
Italian industrial output fell 24% in March from a year earlier, while French industrial production fell 16%, their national statistics offices reported. The German statistics office said German steel production plunged 53% in April from a year earlier on slumping orders from the automotive and machinery industries.
