Nando Times

...the eighth straight monthly decline, stifling hopes that the worst was over for the battered industrial sector.

ndustrial output at the nation's factories, mines and utilities fell by 0.8 percent in May, the Federal Reserve reported. The drop was double what analysts were predicting and came on top of a sharp, 0.6 percent decline in April.

Operating capacity declined to 77.4 percent in May, the lowest level since August 1983, as companies throttled back production in the face of sagging demand. Operating capacity in the high-tech sector fell to its lowest point in 25 years.

Manufacturing is in the middle of a full-blown recession and threatens to take the rest of the economy down with it." Manufacturing has been the hardest hit and is in a recession, forcing the loss of a half-million jobs this year alone.

Gasoline prices during a seven-week period ending in mid-May soared by a whopping 31-cent-a-gallon average nationwide, according to the Energy Information Administration.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), June 16, 2001

Answers

This report says to me, recession. Pure, simple, to the point. How can it be seen any other way?

-- RogerT (rogerT@c-zone.net), June 16, 2001.