The modest recovery resumes. That's the latest word on the greater Grand Rapids economy, according to the data collected in the last two weeks of December. New orders, our closely watched index of business improvement, came up to +20 from +10. However, the production index eased to +14 from +16. Typical of the holiday season, activity in the purchasing offices retreated to +0 from +10. It was good to see the index of employment flip back to positive at +8, up from -5. All in all, our statistics still depict slow but steady growth, even though the pace of the recovery has slowed since the summer and early fall of 2009. |