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Jobless claims rise in US, housing lags

17 April 2015 02:51 (UTC +04:00)

The report, released on Thursday, also shows that US housing starts, the number of privately-owned new houses whose construction has already started in any particular month, rose far less than expected in March.

It was expected that 1.04 million new homes were supposed to have begun their construction in March, but official figures pointed to only 926,000 private-owned projects, a difference of almost 100,000 units.

This, according to experts, is because of a harsh winter that saw a weaker growth in the global economy.

Thursday’s report comes after the Federal Reserve gave a grim picture of its latest economic review of the United States.

On Wednesday, the US central bank published its “Beige Book” report, a publication released 8 times a year, which showed a murky picture of the short-term future of the US economic outlook.

The report cited weaker-than-expected economic data, including most notably in consumer spending, real estate and Construction, and unemployment.