Recent Updates
- US: Consumer Sentiment (Feb-final), Chicago PMI (Feb),Personal Income, Adv Trade & Inventories (Jan)
- US: Consumer Sentiment Detail (Feb-final)
- Canada: Industrial Product Prices (Jan)
- UK: Motor Vehicle Production (Jan)
- more updates...
Economy in Brief
Chicago Business Barometer Declines Sharply in February
The ISM-Chicago Purchasing Managers Business Barometer fell 4.3 points in February to 59.5...
Goods Trade Deficit Widened Slightly in January
The advance estimate of the U.S. trade deficit in goods widened slightly to $83.74 billion in January..
Japan's Industrial Sector Mounts a Comeback
Japan's IP surged in January gaining 4.3% compared to December...
Aircraft Orders Boost U.S. Durable Goods Orders in January
Manufacturers' orders for durable goods increased a much larger-than-expected 3.4% m/m (4.5% y/y) in January...
Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Index Increases Again in February
The Kansas City Fed reported that its manufacturing sector business activity index rose to 24 in February...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Louise Curley April 25, 2005
The IFO indexes of business conditions and expectations in Germany declined further in April as heralded by the ZEW indicator of market sentiment, released last week.
The respondents to thesurvey have become more pessimistic regarding their expectations than regarding their current conditions since April of 2004 as shown in the first chart where the year-to-year changes in expectations and current conditions are plotted.
Other confidence measures released recently include Belgium's BNB (Banque Nationale de Belgique) indicators of business and consumer confidence, both of which declined in April. The only bit of optimism, surprisingly, was shown in Italy's ISEA (Instituto Nationale de Statistica) index of consumer confidence which increased by 0.58% from March and 3.05% from April, 2004. The year-to-year changes in this measure are shown in the second chart together with the year-to-year changes in Belgium's measure of consumer confidence. Italy's consumers have, so far this year, shown positive changes from the corresponding months of 2004 while Belgium consumers have become negative.
Euro-Zone countries: | Apr 05 | Mar 05 | Apr 04 | M/M % or Dif |
Y/Y % or Dif |
2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
IFO Index (2000=100) Germany | ||||||||
Business Climate | 93.3 | 94.0 | 96.4 | -0.74 | -3.22 | 95.7 | 91.7 | 89.4 |
Business Conditions | 93.1 | 93.3 | 95.0 | -0.21 | -2.00 | 94.0 | 88.4 | 85.3 |
Business Expectations | 93.6 | 94.6 | 97.8 | -1.06 | -4.29 | 97.4 | 95.1 | 93.8 |
BNB % Balance Belgium | ||||||||
Business Confidence | -11.6 | -8.0 | -0.6 | -3.6 | -12.2 | 2.3 | 12.9 | 7.9 |
Consumer Confidence | -5 | -2 | -4 | -3 | -1 | -4 | -11 | -2 |
ISEA (1980=100) Italy | ||||||||
Consumer Confidence | 104.8 | 104.2 | 101.7 | 0.58 | 3.05 | 100.4 | 106.8 | 115.8 |