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Economy in Brief
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During FY'18, the federal government ran a 779.0 billion budget versus a 665.8 billion deficit in FY'17...
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Total business inventories increased 0.5% (4.2% y/y) during August...
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Finland is experiencing three distinct forces on the inflation front...
U.S. Home Affordability Improves M/M
The NAR Composite Index of Home Affordability declined 8.3% y/y during August to 141.2...
by Tom Moeller January 30, 2007
The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)-UBS survey indicated that chain store sales last week reversed all of the increases during the prior four weeks with a 0.9% decline.
Nevertheless, the average level of chain store sales in January is up a notably firm 2.8% from the prior month.
During the last ten years there has been a 45% correlation between the y/y change in chain store sales and the change in nonauto retail sales less gasoline.The ICSC-UBS retail chain-store sales index is constructed using the same-store sales (stores open for one year) reported by 78 stores of seven retailers: Dayton Hudson, Federated, Kmart, May, J.C. Penney, Sears and Wal-Mart.
The leading indicator of chain store sales from ICSC-UBS also gave back all of the gains during the prior two weeks with a 1.1% decline and for the month is 0.4% below December.
Access to Credit is the latest International Economic Trends from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and it is available here.
| ICSC-UBS (SA, 1977=100) | 1/27/07 | 1/20/06 | Y/Y | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Weekly Chain Store Sales | 476.4 | 480.9 | 4.9% | 3.3% | 3.6% | 4.7% |
