UNITED PARCEL Service (UPS) has predicted the US economy will grow 1 per cent in the rest of 2012 as slowing volume growth has prompted the world’s largest package-delivery company to conclude average forecasts are too high.
The projection by UPS, an economic bellwether because it moves goods from financial documents to pharmaceuticals, contrasts with a 2.2 per cent rate predicted by economists in a Bloomberg survey.
“Right now, the estimates are a little too optimistic,” chief financial officer Kurt Kuehn said. “We’re not trying to ring the alarm bell, but we do think that there’s probably a little more likelihood that the numbers will turn lower than estimates.”
UPS is bracing itself for the slower expansion, reducing its full-year profit outlook after second-quarter earnings trailed analysts’ estimates.
Company-wide revenue climbed 1.2 per cent to $13.3 billion, UPS said.
Second-quarter net income climbed 2.2 per cent to $1.12 billion, or $1.15 a share, from $1.09 billion, or $1.09 a share, a year earlier, as US domestic package revenue increased. – (Bloomberg)
