Recent Updates
- Australia: Overseas Arrivals and Departures (Dec)
- Korea: Import & Export Price Indexes (Jan)
- Turkey: House Price Index (Dec)
- UK: Rightmove HPI (Feb), LSL/Acadata HPI (Jan)
- Albania: Trade by Commodity (Jan-Prelim)
- Namibia: Government Finance (Dec)
- Hungary: Foreign Currency Liquidity (Jan)
- Sweden: Securities Statistics (Jan)
- more updates...
Economy in Brief
Import Prices Continue Their Decline; Both Oil and Nonoil Prices Move Lower
Import prices fell a greater-than-expected 0.5% during January (-1.7% year-on-year)...
Empire State Manufacturing Activity Improves Modestly
The Empire State Manufacturing Index of General Business Conditions rose to 8.8 during February...
EMU-16 Trade Flows and Balance
EMU-wide exports ticked lower in December as imports were flat...
U.S. Retail Sales Exhibit Extensive Weakness
Total retail sales declined 1.2% (+2.3% y/y) during December...
U.S. Producer Prices Decline; Core PPI Rises
The headline Final Demand Producer Price Index edged down 0.1% for the second consecutive month in January (+2.0% y/y)...
by Robert Brusca August 5, 2008
Central banks are not having good luck with inflation. Of
course, critics will say that inflation fighting has little to do with
luck and that is true enough. The PPI is not a targeted rate by the ECB
so in some sense it can be anything and it doesn’t matter. But we know
it matters and that PPI prices feed into sectors and become costs for
consumer prices so a surging PPI is not good news at all.
| Euro Area and UK PPI Trends | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M/M | Saar | |||||
| Euro Area -13 | Jun-08 | May-08 | 3-Mo | 6-Mo | Yr/Yr | Y/Y Yr Ago |
| Total excl Constructions | 0.9% | 1.2% | 12.8% | 11.1% | 8.0% | 2.3% |
| Excl Energy | 0.4% | 0.3% | 4.4% | 5.5% | 4.0% | 3.1% |
| Capital Goods | 0.2% | 0.2% | 2.5% | 3.0% | 2.0% | 1.9% |
| Consumer Goods | 0.2% | 0.1% | 2.1% | 3.6% | 4.5% | 1.6% |
| Intermediate & Capital Goods | 0.4% | 0.4% | 5.6% | 6.5% | 3.8% | 3.9% |
| Energy | 2.7% | 4.1% | 41.9% | 29.9% | 21.4% | -0.5% |
| MFG | 0.7% | 1.3% | 11.0% | 9.5% | 6.9% | 2.6% |
| Germany | 0.9% | 1.0% | 12.5% | 10.9% | 6.7% | 1.7% |
| Excl Energy | 0.3% | 0.4% | 3.9% | 4.5% | 3.0% | 2.8% |
| France | 0.7% | 1.3% | 11.7% | 9.2% | 7.3% | 1.9% |
| Excl Energy | 0.4% | 0.3% | 3.9% | 4.7% | 3.8% | 2.6% |
| Italy | 0.8% | 1.5% | 11.1% | 10.8% | 8.2% | 2.7% |
| Excl Energy | 0.5% | 0.2% | 5.1% | 6.4% | 4.2% | 3.2% |
| UK | 2.0% | 2.6% | 32.2% | 22.0% | 19.5% | 1.2% |
| Excl Energy | 0.8% | 1.4% | 12.9% | 11.3% | 7.2% | 2.9% |
| Euro Area 13 Harmonized PPI excluding Construction | ||||||
| The EA 13 countries are Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia | ||||||
