KPMG Economics

Economic Coordinates

Explore analysis of key data indicators, such as job creation and the labor market, consumer spending, inflation, investment, housing and monetary policy. These combined data points are indicators of the overall health of the economy.

• Stocks Down & Bonds Up | Bloomberg Markets: The Close | Bloomberg TV
  KPMG chief economist Diane Swonk discusses recent GDP data and whether it paints a picture of a resilient economy and consumer. Also joining Bloomberg: Kate Moore, BlackRock, G.J. Hart, Red Robin President & CEO, Jason Celino, KeyBanc Capital Markets, Bruce Carnegie-Brown, Lloyd’s of London Chairman, Kailey Leinz, Balance of Power, Jeff Kleintop, Charles Schwab.
  May 30, 2024 | Bloomberg TV

• Map Shows States Were Most, Least Houses Are Being Built | Newsweek
  New homes construction rose by nearly 6% on a monthly basis across the U.S. April, but the picture was mixed. The Northeast saw a plunge in housing starts while the South saw an increase of close to 5% in April from the same time a year ago. The Midwest also saw an improvement of 3.4% and the West saw a jump of nearly 2%, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. "Strong demographics and mass migration to the South have helped many of these new apartments get absorbed," Yelena Maleyev, KPMG's senior economist, said. "Builder sentiment rapidly deteriorated in May on the prospect of "higher for longer" interest rates, slipping back into negative territory, according to the National Association of Home Builders' sentiment survey," Maleyev pointed out. "Our forecast calls for one rate cut in December this year."
  May 17, 2024 | Newsweek

• Starbucks, Sweetgreen, McDonald’s CEOs Are All Seeing a Similar Shift in Consumer Spending | Observer
  Financial strain is intensifying for households situated at the lower end of the income spectrum. “What I worry about more than anything is that low-income households, in leisure and hospitality, have seen a fairly dramatic de-acceleration in wage gain, and are now trailing inflation” Diane Swonk, KPMG’s chief economist, told Observer. “We have consumers slowing but not collapsing. Data on spending in the current quarter is coming in stronger than the last one because of incentives offered on things like vehicles,” KPMG’s Swonk said. “There are solid gains in consumer spending in services, that includes health care, legal services and household maintenance.”
  May 13, 2024 | Observer

• KPMG: Why ‘Short Maturities’ May Be a Treasurer’s Best Bet | CMLI
  KPMG’s senior economist Ken Kim recently sat down with CMLI to discuss his thoughts on what Treasurers and other cash management leaders could consider investing in following the Fed’s decision to leave interest rates unchanged."
  May 13, 2024 | CMLI

• Making Money with Charles Payne: Fed's No. 1 job is to kill inflation without a surge in unemployment: Diane Swonk | FOX Business TV
  KPMG chief economist Diane Swonk discusses whether cutting interest rates too soon or not hiking rates enough would be the Fed's bigger mistake on 'Making Money.'
  May 10, 2024 | FOX Business TV

• For Mother's Day, 5 economists share the best financial advice their moms gave them | MarketWatch
  Diane Swonk was just about 20 years old when she learned a vital lesson from her mother, one that she would carry with her for the rest of her life. After Swonk's parents divorced and her father threatened to stop paying for part of her education because he didn't agree with her choice of major — economics, not engineering, as the former auto industry executive wished for — Swonk's mother stepped up to the plate. Diane's mother was paying for 40% of her education and told her ex-husband that she wasn't going to let her daughter's education stop because he didn't approve. She convinced Diane's father to continue his support. Now chief economist and managing director at KPMG, with multiple degrees under her belt, Swonk, 62, learned at a young age the value of women being financially independent — because financial support from others can disappear fast. "I could see how someone could cut you off and change the course of your life. And it has meant that I went out of my way for the rest of my life to never be dependent on anyone," she added.
  May 10, 2024 | MarketWatch

• Jay Powell’s dilemma: the US economy is too strong to cut rates | Financial Times (UK)
  Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell confirmed what many have suspected for some time: interest rate cuts in the world’s biggest economy are not imminent. The economy remains too hot to start loosening monetary policy and the Fed’s mission to beat inflation back to its 2% target is not complete. A series of data releases pointing to higher-than-expected inflation had fed concerns among some market participants that the next move in rates could be up. Powell allayed those worries on Wednesday, saying rate rises to squelch the inflation uptick were ‘unlikely.’ “Clearly the threshold to raise is higher than to cut, but both are high,” said KPMG chief economist Diane Swonk.
  May 02, 2024 | Financial Times (UK) 

• Beating inflation: How do Europe and the US compare? | Deutsche Welle
  "For the Fed, the threshold to raise rates is still greater than the threshold to cut," Diane Swonk, chief economist at consultancy KPMG US, told DW. "But they're starting to both get pretty high.”
  May 02, 2024 | Deutsche Welle