As the recession gets deeper and eyes are on the G20 meeting to be held in April 2009, numbers still manage to surprise with one record after another.
Let’s look at some recent unforgettable figures;
On micro basis;
Fedex reported 75 per cent fall in profits on19th March 2009 for its quarter ending on 28th February 2009 from $393 million to $97 million.
AIG reported $60 billion loss for Q4-08, the biggest in US corporate history.
HSBC had £12.5 billion rights issue
Macro basis;
Japan’s exports fell by 45.7%, German engineering companies’ export orders by 47 per cent in January 2009. 700,000 US job losses were recorded in February 2009.
The changes are very high in percentage and absolute figures when the shortness of the periods is taken into consideration.
The picture gets gloomier when adding the major stock markets’ significantly lost values such that;
Dow Jones industrial average fell to its lowest level since 1997 with 22 per cent loss since the start of 2009 -as of 2nd March 2009- accompanied by S & P 500’s 21 per cent fall.
Q1-09 figures will be very crucial in managing expectations. So far so bad!
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