More importantly, in February, the economy created 236 Thousand jobs and unemployment rate decreased to 7.7 percent. In addition, the statement from the Federal Reserve first policy meeting only confirmed that economic growth halted over the last months as a result of transitory factors. The Fed also reaffirmed its USD 8.5 billion asset purchase program and said it will keep interest rates near 0 percent until the unemployment rate drops below 6.5 percent. Finally, after significant decline in January, The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index rebounded to 69.6 in February as the shock effect caused by the fiscal cliff uncertainty and payroll tax cuts appears to have eased. However, budget issues remain. On March 1st, President Obama signed the official directive to put the automatic spending cuts into effect, ordering government agencies to reduce their budgets by $85bn between March 2nd and October 1st.

In the fourth quarter of 2012, GDP growth was revised up to 0.1 percent from an annualised fall of 0.1 percent reported in the advance estimate. On a year-over-year basis, the economy grew 1.6 percent, down from 2.4 percent expansion recorded in the previous three months.		In February, The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index reached 69.6, up from 58.4 in January. In February, retail sales rose a solid 1.1 percent from the previous month despite higher taxes and the government spending cuts.
In February, total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 236,000 and the unemployment rate declined to 7.7 percent, its lowest since late 2008.		In February, the ISM Manufacturing PMI rose to 54.2 Percent from 53.1 Percent in January, the highest level since June 2011. Also, in February, industrial production expanded more than expected 2.5 percent from the previous year and 0.7 percent from the previous month.