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Economy in Brief
U.S. Consumer Credit Continues to Decline
Cautious spending breeds less credit usage...
German Orders Plunge in April
Germany's orders plunged in April, falling by 25.8% m/m...
U.S. Trade Deficit Deepens; Exports & Imports Fall by Record Amounts in April
The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services widened to $49.41 billion during April...
U.S. Productivity and Unit Labor Costs Revised Up for Q1'20
Output per hour revised up on weaker hours worked...
State & Pandemic Assistance Continuing Claims Total 32.5 Million
Initial jobless claims decreased to a still extremely-elevated 1.877 million in the week ending May 30...
Special Topics
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 | ||||||
