Pantheon Publications
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Oliver Allen (Senior US Economist)
Net trade and inventories on course for a big combined boost to headline GDP in Q2.
Consumption still resilient, but a slowdown looms.
Tariff uncertainty comes for the housing market.
- We look for a 0.1% uptick in real consumers’ spending in April, and a 0.12% rise in the core PCE deflator.
- Q1 GDP growth probably still is being understated, but the economy was losing momentum nonetheless.
- The court ruling against the Trump tariffs looks unlikely to derail the administration’s trade agenda.
- The regional Fed surveys suggest services sector growth in slowing rather than collapsing...
- ...But employment growth in many services industries probably will be much weaker in Q3.
- Limited services inflation and wage growth will allow the Fed to respond with easier policy, eventually.
Consumers breathe a sigh of relief, but the labor market still is softening.
Equipment investment is set to fall sharply.
Economy robust in the face of tariff uncertainty for now.
STAGNATION AHEAD, AS THE TARIFFS HIT REAL INCOMES…
- …THE FED WILL START EASING IN Q3 AS PAYROLL GAINS SLOW
- The marked weakness in airline passenger numbers partly reflects a dive in inbound tourism.
- Most other near-real time indicators of consumers’ spending remain relatively resilient.
- Existing home sales probably remained depressed in April; a meaningful recovery still is some way off.
Extremely low response rate and partisan divide raise questions over reliability.
Pointing to a sharp fall in new home sales & residential construction.
Further weakness probably lies in store.
Tariff shock puts small business under further pressure.
- Retail sales held up relatively well in April, clinging on to nearly all their solid gains in March.
- But sales volumes are likely to falter soon, as the wave of pre-tariff purchases unwinds in earnest.
- A more substantial pass-through from tariffs to retail prices probably will soon weigh on sales volumes too.
- The current menu of tariffs would lift the core PCE deflator by about 1pp, mostly over the next year.
- But uncertainties persist over the speed and extent of pass-through, and the tariff rates themselves.
- Ending exemptions and applying the threatened reciprocal tariffs could push core inflation as high as 4%.
- The inflation outlook is little changed by the China “deal”; less trade will be rerouted via lower tariff nations.
- The export outlook, however, is brighter, so we are lifting our 2025 GDP growth forecast to 1½%, from 1¼%.
- We look for unchanged April retail sales, but 0.5% gains in both sales ex-autos and the control measure.
Mismeasurement likely distorting the Q1 numbers; underlying trend solid.
- The monthly inventories data show very little in the way of pre-tariff stockpiling in most industries...
- ...Consistent with trade data showing that the Q1 jump in imports was limited to a few specific goods.
- Mismeasurement of pharma inventories suggests Q1 GDP growth was underestimated by around 1pp.
We doubt services inflation will reaccelerate sharply.
