trade group

Despite Uptick in March, Home Building Remains Slow

The Commerce Department said on Tuesday that home construction rose 7.2 percent in March from February to a seasonally adjusted 549,000 units a year. Building permits, an indicator of future construction, rose 11.2 percent after hitting a five-decade low in February.

Still, the building pace is far below the 1.2 million units a year that economists consider healthy. And March’s improvement came after construction fell in February to its second-lowest level on records dating back more than a half-century.

Millions of foreclosures have forced home prices down. In some cities, prices are half of what they were before the housing market collapsed in 2006 and 2007. And more foreclosures are expected this year. Tight credit has made mortgage loans difficult to get, and many would-be buyers who could qualify for loans are reluctant to shop, fearing that prices will fall even further.

A sign of the battered industry is the number of new homes finished and ready to sell dropped in March to a seasonally adjusted 509,000 units, the lowest level on records dating back to 1968. And the number of homes now under construction has fallen to a four-decade low.

Single-family homes, which make up roughly 80 percent of home construction, rose 7.7 percent in March. Apartment and condominium construction rose 14.7 percent. Building permits increased to the highest level since December, spurred by a more than 28 percent jump in permits granted for apartment and condo buildings.

The increase in home construction activity was felt in most regions of the country. It rose 32.3 percent in the Midwest, 27.6 percent in the West and 5.4 percent in the Northeast. Construction fell 3.3 percent in the South.

The National Association of Home Builders, the trade group, said Monday that its index of industry sentiment for April fell one notch, to 16. That followed a one-point increase in March and four months of 16 readings. Any reading below 50 indicates negative sentiment about the housing market’s future; the index has not been above that level since April 2006.

Most economists expect home prices — and by extension home sales and construction — to slip even further in 2011 before a modest recovery takes hold.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=a8a7c77b1636b643ac4df455e8dc3131

In Outburst, Putin Says W.T.O. Rules Don’t Apply

MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia interrupted a speech on the economy by a deputy minister on Friday to sharply rebuke him for suggesting that the government should abide by World Trade Organization rules on import tariffs. Russia is not yet a member of the global trade group but is applying to join.

It was unclear how, if at all, Mr. Putin’s interjection would affect the delicate talks that seemed close to success.

Trade officials in both the United States and the European Union say Russia has met nearly all requirements after cracking down on pirating, agreeing to stricter rules against counterfeited pharmaceutical drugs and negotiating with Finland on tariffs for round-log timber exports, a particular sticking point

So it came as a surprise when Mr. Putin interrupted the speech of a deputy minister of economy, Andrei Klepach, to say he would order Russian officials not to obey W.T.O. rules.

Mr. Klepach had been talking about industrial electrical equipment, like turbines, saying that Russian factories were struggling to compete with Chinese imports and that officials could not raise tariffs because of the free trade commitments undertaken by Russia while trying to join the W.T.O. Officials’ “hands are tied,” the deputy minister said.

Mr. Putin then burst out, using sharp language, that Russian officials should ignore the rules. “This is a direct order,” Mr. Putin said, according to a report on the meeting in St. Petersburg by the Interfax news agency.

“As soon as we start fulfilling W.T.O. obligations without being a member, they, our partners, will lose any wish to admit us,” Mr. Putin said. “Why the hell should they admit us if we already observe everything?”

Mr. Putin has been known as a W.T.O. skeptic for years, despite his government’s negotiation for membership.

In 2009, at another time when Russia seemed close to joining, Mr. Putin abruptly broke off talks and said Russia would join only as part of a customs union with Belarus and Kazakhstan. Now, though, Russia has dropped that idea and is negotiating alone.

It has been a long — and surely frustrating — process. Russia first applied to join the W.T.O.’s predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, in 1993, and its application has been pending longer than that of any other member in the 153-country group.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=7d0cc2d34974ff83d4b78a04df35ad8b

Despite Uptick in March, Home Building Remains Slow

In Outburst, Putin Says W.T.O. Rules Don’t Apply

Recent News

Partners