Macroeconomic Forecast Outline

Macroeconomic Forecast Outline

A) The following Economic Indicators are used in order to forecast the future sales of BMW's X5 Sports Utility Vehicle.

*GDP

*CPI

*Consumer Price Index

*Unemployment

*Wages and Salaries

*Inflation

*Retail sales

B) Sources obtained for the forecast are:

*US Department of Commerce

*Bureau of Labor Statistics

*US Census Bureau

*Congressional Budget Office

*The Federal Reserve

*The Conference Board

C) US Department of Commerce Economics and Statistics Administration and the same sources from above.

Professional forecasters look at the past data to evaluate and determine if any trends have occurred, such as the effect on inflation to the type of vehicles that are bought, and how unemployment affected the purchase of vehicles

Congressional Budget Office

2003 2004 2005 Federal Reserves 2003/2004

1st Qt 2nd Qt 3rd Qt 4th Qt

GDP (percentage) 3.8 4.8 4.2 105.16 105.440 105.870 106.270

CPI 2.3 1.6 1.7 181.5 182.4 184.5 185.2

Unemployment 6.0 5.8 5.3 N/A N/A N/A N/A

Wages and Salaries 5,237 5,518 5,818 159.3 160.3 161.7 162.5

Retail Sales 11,732 28,047 31,135 N/A N/A N/A N/A