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- Euro area: Flash Consumer Confidence (Apr)
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Economy in Brief
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...
U.S. Mortgage Loan Applications Rebound; Interest Rates Steady
The MBA total Mortgage Applications Volume Index increased 4.9% last week (1.0% y/y), ...
by By Robert Brusca February 1, 2008
The NTC MFG PMIs show that EMU MFG took a hit to growth late
in 2007 but has been on a steady mend since then. The EU Commission
readings do not share such a benign view as that report’s industrial
sector as its readings are still losing ground. The NTC framework is
much more upbeat in that respect. However, the NTC data, while more
upbeat in a time-series sense (momentum), has its readings relatively
weaker in early 2008 compared to their past history than the EU
Commission data. For example the over the same time period the EU data
put industrial strength in the 76th percentile of its range stronger
than NTC’s 66th percentile.
The NTC data showed eight of nine members (see table) losing
momentum still in December, but in January it reports only four of nine
still slipping, only the UK among them one of the larger EMU economies.
In January NTC shows only two of these countries with MFG contracting
(readings below 50), Italy does that for the second month running.
NTC MFG Indices | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jan-08 | Dec-07 | Nov-07 | 3Mo | 6Mo | 12Mo | Percentile | |
Euro-13 | 52.77 | 52.56 | 52.80 | 52.71 | 52.87 | 54.09 | 66.7% |
Germany | 54.43 | 53.59 | 53.74 | 53.92 | 54.04 | 55.46 | 71.0% |
France | 53.92 | 53.85 | 52.55 | 53.44 | 52.32 | 53.03 | 66.9% |
Italy | 50.80 | 50.74 | 51.34 | 50.96 | 51.71 | 52.88 | 52.7% |
Spain | 49.77 | 49.51 | 50.73 | 50.00 | 50.43 | 52.65 | 46.1% |
Austria | 54.10 | 53.21 | 55.00 | 54.10 | 54.16 | 54.38 | 69.4% |
Greece | 51.44 | 52.67 | 54.28 | 52.80 | 53.51 | 53.64 | 50.6% |
Ireland | 46.37 | 49.54 | 52.34 | 49.42 | 51.54 | 52.22 | 6.6% |
Netherlands | 53.10 | 54.40 | 54.47 | 53.99 | 55.11 | 56.39 | 61.1% |
EU | |||||||
UK | 50.63 | 52.42 | 53.94 | 52.33 | 53.35 | 54.10 | 47.6% |