When is economic news good and when is it bad? Take the retail sales numbers from January 2023, for example — as much an example of the ping-pong nature of today's economy, with sideline judges differing in interpretation.
For retailers, it was good news, with a 3% increase between December 2022 and January 2023. Although that has to be taken with some skepticism, because the 90% confidence interval includes zero, so the Census Bureau can't know if there was any actual change.
But say that it was actually 3%. While retailers might be happy, especially after the -1.1% from November to December 2022, others, like the Federal Reserve, might not be, taking the activity as yet another example of an overheating economy, fueling the inclination to keep pressure on interest rates.
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