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Economy in Brief
German PPI Accelerates
The German year-on-year PPI has generally been decelerating since early 2017...
U.S. Leading Economic Indicators Signal Continued Expansion
The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators increased 0.3% during March...
Philadelphia Fed Factory Conditions Improve; Prices Jump
The Philadelphia Fed reported that its General Factory Sector Business Conditions Index rose to 23.2 during April...
U.S. Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance Are Little Changed
Initial unemployment insurance claims slipped to 232,000 (-6.1% y/y) during the week ended April 14...
U.K. Retail Sales Fall
U.K. GDP is expected to cool its jets when the first quarter GDP number is released...
by Robert Brusca October 3, 2007
Retail volumes grew by just 0.1% in the Euro area 13 in August. This follows an upwardly-revised +0.4% in July. That is not an auspicious start to the quarter. However since Q2 ended on such a strong note, again of 0.6% that has sent Q3 off on a relatively firm note so that the gains so far in the quarter have been helped by that momentum. As a result, quarter-to-date growth in EMU is strong. Sales volumes overall are expanding at a 3% pace with food expenditures up at a pace of 0.6%; nonfood spending is expanding at a pace of 4% all annualized at the two-month market in the new quarter.
Still the individual country results are disparate. For Germany, sales are up at just a 2.1% pace in the quarter; for the UK the pace is a very hefty 8.1%. French figures are not yet available but France has been tracking on the high side. Still for EMU as a whole the pace of retail sales seems to be slowing. What the EMU post for the quarter will still depend importantly on what consumers do in September.
| Euro Area 13 Retail Sales Volume | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug-07 | Jul-07 | Jun-07 | 3-Mo | 6-MO | 12-Mo | |
| Euro Area 13 Total | 0.1% | 0.4% | 0.6% | 4.5% | 1.9% | 0.7% |
| Food | 0.2% | 0.3% | -0.1% | 2.0% | 0.6% | 0.3% |
| Nonfood | -0.1% | 0.4% | 1.1% | 5.6% | 2.2% | 0.8% |
| Textiles | #N/A | 0.8% | 2.9% | 0.6% | 5.6% | 4.9% |
| HH Goods | #N/A | 0.2% | 1.4% | 4.9% | 3.3% | 3.7% |
| Books news, etc | #N/A | 0.2% | 1.6% | 3.9% | 3.4% | 3.3% |
| Pharmaceutical | #N/A | 0.3% | 0.2% | 3.8% | 3.7% | 3.3% |
| Other Nonspecified | #N/A | -0.1% | 1.3% | 2.2% | 3.4% | 1.1% |
| Mail order | #N/A | 0.9% | -0.1% | 9.3% | 9.5% | 1.6% |
| Nonfood Country Detail Volume | ||||||
| Germany | 0.9% | -0.5% | 3.0% | 14.5% | 2.1% | -2.7% |
| France | #N/A | 0.4% | 1.3% | 7.9% | 6.5% | 5.8% |
| Italy (Total; Value) | #N/A | -0.1% | 0.0% | -1.1% | -1.6% | -1.1% |
| UK (EU) | 0.7% | 0.7% | 1.0% | 10.2% | 7.5% | 7.0% |
| Shaded areas calculated on a one-month lag due to lagging data | ||||||
| The EA 13 countries are Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain. | ||||||
