Friday Finale: Some Good News to Ponder

Page Siplon, executive director of the Georgia Center of Innovation for Logistics, sent along his "Top 4 Encouraging Statistics" for this month:


U.S. GDP increased at an annual rate of 3% in Q4 2011. This is up from an earlier "second" estimate of 1.8%. Although the 120,000 jobs added in March surprised almost every economist (whose predictions averaged gains of 206,000 for March) the Nation's unemployment rate continued to fall, now at 8.2%.
U.S. exports continue to grow, setting another all-time record of $181.2 billion in February. This is almost 10% higher than the same time last year. (Source: U.S. Census)
Rising gas prices apparently did not deter Americans too much from buying new cars in March. Chrysler had its best month of sales since March 2008 and Nissan had its best month ever. General Motors sales were up by 12% year-over-year, and up 5% at Ford.
In February, building permits issued (an indicator of future housing starts) rose 5.1% to an annual rate of 717,000 (Source: U.S. DOC)