The euro area trade surplus rose to 19.5 billion euros in February from 17.4 billion euros in January. The surplus is slightly smaller than its 20.2 billion euros surplus of 12-months ago. Month-to-month the balance of trade for [...]
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| Apr 17 2019EMU Trade Surplus Expands on Weak Imports
- Global| Apr 16 2019
ZEW Optimism Steps Up A Bit
The ZEW financial experts see largely weaker conditions prevailing in April 2019, but they have lifted expectations for all countries in the table except the United Kingdom. The queue (or rank) standings for current conditions are [...]
- Global| Apr 15 2019
French Retail Sales Survey Continues to Weaken
The volume of retail sales fell month-to-month, according to the Bank of France retail trade survey. Over 12 months, the gauge is falling by 3.5%. However, it is getting some traction as sales expand at a 0.3% pace over six months and [...]
- Global| Apr 12 2019
EMU IP Drops But Manufacturing IP Makes Gains
Euro area industrial production fell by 0.2% in February, leaving January’s 1.9% gain sandwiched between two smaller declines. Output is still rising on balance over three months at a 3.5% annual rate. That’s a reversal of its -2.1% [...]
Ireland's HICP and domestic CPI both point to well contained inflation. At the same time, there is evidence that pressures in Ireland are rising. Does Ireland have the kind of inflation that can be ignored and will return to path or [...]
- Global| Apr 10 2019
U.K. IP Shows Mixed Trends
U.K. manufacturing industrial output rose in February by 0.9%, marking back-to-back increases averaging 1% per month for two months in a row. Headline manufacturing growth shows acceleration in progress from 12-months (0.6%) to six- [...]
- Global| Apr 09 2019
Italian Retail Sales Tick Higher
Italian retail sales ticked higher in February, rising by 0.1% after a 0.6% January gain. Still, retail performance is poor with nominal sales up by less than 1% over 12 months (0.9%) and dead flat over both six months and three [...]
- Global| Apr 08 2019
OECD LEIs Flash Slowdown!
The OECD leading indicators are barometers of economic activity; they are available for a broad set of countries. These indicators show declining LEI values on a broad array of countries and regions with a time series of weakness in [...]
- Global| Apr 05 2019
German IP Makes Solid Gain But Manufacturing IP Still Falls; Negative Momentum Is Blunted Largely by Capital Goods [...]
The February German report on industrial production shows a 0.7% gain after a flat result in January that has been revised up from a decline previously. The industrial sector is mixed. The headline shows a 5.9% annual rate of increase [...]
- Global| Apr 04 2019
German Orders Continue to Flesh-Out the Weak Side of the Story; Extremely Weak Foreign Orders Drive Weakness
The chart of year-on-year growth rates pretty much tells the story. Domestic orders in Germany have been weak and declining since early in 2018. The pace of their erosion has been both steady and relentless. But foreign order growth [...]
- Global| Apr 03 2019
Global PMIs Show Some Life in the Services Sector Versus Near-Death in Manufacturing and Purgatory from Brexit
The composite PMI readings largely lost ground in March, however, not by much in most cases. Italy Spain and China are exceptions where the composite PMIs gained traction. In four of eight of the countries/regions whose results are [...]
- Global| Apr 02 2019
PPI Continues to Show Mild Growth
News headlines on this report say that the PPI in the EMU accelerated in February. Do not believe it. I have long had my quibbles with how journalists describe economic reports. Today’s PPI report is an example. The headline PPI [...]
- of362Go to 118 page