Retail sales volumes in the EMU are slightly elevated but remain on a moderate growth path after going flat month-to-month in March. Sales volume is up by 1.8% over 12 months, accelerating over six months and accelerating also over [...]
Introducing
Robert Brusca
in:Our Authors
Robert A. Brusca is Chief Economist of Fact and Opinion Economics, a consulting firm he founded in Manhattan. He has been an economist on Wall Street for over 25 years. He has visited central banking and large institutional clients in over 30 countries in his career as an economist. Mr. Brusca was a Divisional Research Chief at the Federal Reserve Bank of NY (Chief of the International Financial markets Division), a Fed Watcher at Irving Trust and Chief Economist at Nikko Securities International. He is widely quoted and appears in various media. Mr. Brusca holds an MA and Ph.D. in economics from Michigan State University and a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan. His research pursues his strong interests in non aligned policy economics as well as international economics. FAO Economics’ research targets investors to assist them in making better investment decisions in stocks, bonds and in a variety of international assets. The company does not manage money and has no conflicts in giving economic advice.
Publications by Robert Brusca
Global| May 06 2019EMU Retail Sales Go Flat in March, Still Carry Momentum
- Global| May 03 2019
Internal EMU Inflation Trends Go Awry
Since the EMU formation, Germany has been the low inflation country. Germany as the largest economy in the EMU gets the greatest weight in setting EMU macroeconomic data, including the HICP, for just that reason. In the past ‘most’ [...]
- Global| May 02 2019
Asian PMIs Remain Weak in a Weak Global Economy
Asia: still weak after all these years The Asian PMIs show weakening monthly performance from four of nine reporters with one (Japan) improving albeit showing manufacturing contraction (PMI raw score below 50). Japan is the lone [...]
- Global| May 01 2019
U.K. Manufacturing Sector Slows
The U.K. manufacturing PMI from Markit falls to 53.1 in April from 55.1 in March. Interestingly, the averages of the various industrial gauges in the table show degradation from their respective 12-month averages to their six-month [...]
- Global| Apr 30 2019
The Great EMU Deceleration Ends?
Year-over-year GDP growth had decelerated in five consecutive quarters until the Q1 2019 release. And even in 2019, it is not posting a trend-stopping rise, but rather a rate of growth equal to that in the previous quarter when [...]
- Global| Apr 29 2019
EMU Indexes Show Deep and Broad Weakness: Is Winter Coming?
The EU Commission indexes fell relatively sharply in April, dropping 1.6 points month-to-month and shedding 7.3 point over 12 months. The 12-month drop is the largest of its kind since the index fell by 8.3 points in November 2012. [...]
- Global| Apr 26 2019
Japan's Retail Sales Lose Traction
Retail sales in Japan scored an increase in March after two consecutive monthly declines. Still, the just-completed first quarter is showing sales fall at a 4.2% annual rate. The sequential growth rates show that sales have been [...]
- Global| Apr 25 2019
U.K. Shows Mixed Results for Distributive Trades Survey
The U.K. distributive trades retail survey is generally more upbeat than the wholesale survey in April. That is true for the current readings as well as for the forward-looking expectations. The difference in the assessment, [...]
- Global| Apr 24 2019
Germany’s IFO Erodes
The German IFO gauge fell month-to-month to 6.5 in April from 8.7 in March in its diffusion presentation. The headline was last weaker for one month in February 2016. It was weaker for a series of four months in a row ending December [...]
- Global| Apr 23 2019
Japan’s CPI and Core CPI Creep Higher
Japan's money supply is showing no change in its rate of growth across its various measures. The respective 12-month and three-month growth rates are nearly identical for M1, M2 and M3 although each aggregate weakens slightly over six [...]
- Global| Apr 19 2019
Confidence, Italian Style, Erodes a Bit
Consumer and business confidence peaked in the mature portion of this cycle about 1.5 years ago. As the graphic shows, consumer and business confidence are not always embedded in the same cycle. But the big swings in each series [...]
- Global| Apr 18 2019
EMU PMIs Go on Hold in April
The EMU PMI composite index stalled April, at a still growth-indicating 51.3, the same level as in March. In April, the manufacturing sector rebounded slightly, trimming its speed of decline with a 47.8 reading compared to March’s [...]
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