Recent Updates
- Israel: Average Housing Prices (Q2)
- Japan: NCI Economic Activity Index (Aug)
- US: NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (Aug)
- Canada: Wholesale trade, MSIO (June)
- Pakistan: Foreign Currency Deposits and Utilization (JUL)
- more updates...
Economy in Brief
U.S. Housing Affordability Declines Further in June
The NAR Fixed Rate Mortgage Housing Affordability Index fell 3.6% in June...
EMU Output Makes Solid Gain in June
The European Monetary Union posted a 0.7% increase for industrial output in June...
U.S. Producer Prices Fall During July; Core Increase Weakens
The Producer Price Index for Final Demand fell 0.5% during July...
U.S. Unemployment Claims Continue on an Uptrend
Initial claims for unemployment insurance filed in the week ended August 6 rose 14,000 to 262,000...
RICS Survey Points to More U.K. Housing Sector Weakness
The survey of housing market conditions in the U.K. continues to show strength in prices versus weakness...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller January 30, 2007
Consumer confidence increased a modest 0.3% in January, according to the Conference Board Survey, following an upwardly revised 4.5% December gain. The increase was to the highest level since March 2002.
The reading of present conditions rose a firmer 2.6% after the 4.1% December increase as the percentage of respondents who viewed business conditions as good rose to 28.1%, the highest since last May. The percentage who viewed jobs as plentiful also rose to 29.9%, the highest since 2001.
Expectations, however, reversed nearly half of the December gain with a 1.9% decline. Expectations about future income fell the hardest, offset by an uptick in expected employment conditions.
The expected inflation rate in twelve months ticked lower to 4.7%, that was versus expectations during all of last year for a 5.1% rate of inflation in twelve months.
Monetary Policy Inertia and Recent Fed Actions from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco can be found here.
Conference Board (SA, 1985=100) |
January | December | Y/Y | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Consumer Confidence Index | 110.3 | 110.0 | 3.3% | 105.9 | 100.3 | 96.1 |
Present Conditions | 133.9 | 130.5 | 4.0% | 130. | 116.1 | 94.9 |
Expectations | 94.5 | 96.3 | 2.6% | 89.7 | 89.7 | 96.9 |