WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US industry landed a surprising number of orders in May.
Orders for durable goods — from toasters to airplanes — grew 1.6 percent month-on-month, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday. Economists polled by Reuters had expected only 0.5 percent. The increase in April, which was a revised 0.7 percent, was thus clearly exceeded.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently downgraded its growth forecast for the US economy. In 2022, he only expects US gross domestic product to grow by 2.9 percent. For 2023, the fund lowered its forecast from 2.3 to 1.7 percent. The US economy is still recovering from the corona pandemic while having to cope with setbacks from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the lockdown measures in China, it said.