U.S. Economy Slows Down to 2.2%

The U.S. economy growth is slower than what was initially thought in the 4th quarter of 2014, since decrease in stockpiling by businesses and a weak trade balance affected the economy.

The country's economic output is up at the rate of 2.2% in the 4th quarter of 2014, last month the initial estimate of was 2.6%. The revision also represented a steep deceleration from the blistering 5% annual rate of growth reported in the third quarter of 2014.

Economists on Wall Street has already expecting the revision even before the announcement, they even expected that it should be at 2%. The Commerce Department released the revision on Friday, it is the 2nd of 3 estimates that are revised as more data comes in. The final estimate will be out by late March.

The cause of the revision is due to slow additions to inventories by businesses than first estimated, removing 0.7% from the headline number for growth even though other underlying components like demand from consumers remained healthy.

US Dollar Holds Ground as Federal Reserve Set for Another Rate Hike

The US Dollar continue to stay strong while the Federal Reserve is set to raise interest rates this year. On Thursday, the greenback is up for more than a week versus other currency as a result of dropping jobless claims and belief that the U.S. economic growth is outpacing other developed nations.

Against the Euro the U.S. dollar is $1.1365 per euro as of 8:46 a.m., it gained 0.3% when the German Finance Ministry rejected Greece’s proposal for an extension to its rescue loans before adopting the stance that the approach stood as the basis of negotiations. The U.S. dollar gained 0.1% against the Yen at 119.03.

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index added 0.5 percent to 1,167.35 on Thursday, its biggest gain since Feb. 11.

The jobless claims were down by 21,000 to 283,000 in the week ended February 14, from 304,000 in the prior period, a Labor Department report showed Thursday in Washington. The median forecast of 50 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for 290,000.

The Philippines is now the Call-Center Capital of the World - LA TIMES

Presently, the outsourcing industry in the Philippines is the number 1 choice for employment among young Filipinos. More than 1 million strong Filipinos are now now working for a call center or other outsourcing business, which serves mostly US companies.

Philippines has cheap labor, highly skilled labor market, and can speak and understand English well which are invaluable to a growing list of U.S. companies. US Companies use them to perform customer service for their company, generate sales leads, data entry, format documents and read medical scans and legal briefs.

Filipinos work the nightshifts and handles angry Americans, they earn about $700 a month, more than many general physicians earn in the Philippines.

Philippines call-center industry has already overtaken India as the call-center capital of the world, though India is still the top information technology outsourcing destination.

By the year 2016, experts said that the Philippines BPO industry will be able to achieve $25 billion in revenue, that will be about 10% of the Philippines economy and as much as the total amount expected to be sent home by the 11 million Filipino nurses, sailors, musicians and others working overseas.

Source LA TIMES