Sales of US manufactured goods skyrocket in August

WASHINGTON: A surge in the civilian aircraft purchases sparked a surprise jump in the sales of big-ticket manufactured US goods in August, according to the government data released on Monday.

Durable goods orders rose 1.8 per cent, compared with July to $263.5 billion, taking the flight on a nearly 78 per cent increase in non-defence aircraft orders, the Commerce Department reported, a jump largely due to Boeing.

But excluding transportation equipment, the total orders edged up just 0.2 per cent, slowing from the recent months but still reflecting the rising investment.

The total orders have increased in 15 of the last 16 months, and the originally reported dip in July was revised up to show a 0.5 per cent increase, according to the report.

In other sectors, the orders of motor vehicles and parts fell 3.1 per cent, while computers and electronics rose 1.4 per cent.

The consensus among economists centered around a 0.8 per cent rise in the total durable goods orders, but Ian Shepherdson of Macroeconomics had predicted an “upside risk” due to the aircraft component given the seasonal adjustment factors applied to the raw data by the government statisticians.

“Data from Boeing suggest that unadjusted orders rose modestly, but a favourable swing ought to generate a rather bigger seasonally adjusted increase,” he said in a preview of the report.

While he said the post-pandemic surge in investment looks unsustainable, “the case for expecting continued increases, at a less frenetic pace, is strong” as firms have the resources and are restrained from expanding by adding personnel due to the shortage of workers.