Germany’s industrial production fell by 1.6% in February as bad weather may have taken a toll on output. Construction output fell by 7.2% in February. The March construction PMI for Germany fell for the first time since 2015. [...]
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 06 2018German IP Drops Sharply- What Does It Mean?
- Global| Apr 05 2018
Global Composite PMIs Sag; Trade War Looms with Global Economy Already in Swoon-Mode
The global PMIs have largely weakened in March. Much of this is on the back of weakening services sectors (see Chart). Of the 14 countries listed in the table (excludes EMU), all but one, India, weaken in March compared to February. [...]
- Global| Apr 04 2018
EMU Unemployment Rate Lowest Since 2008; It All Looks So Good on the Surface But There Are Such Problems Underneath
The EMU continues to make growth progress and make progress in reducing the unemployment rate in the area. The EMU unemployment rate is down to its 2008 low. But bigger issue loom. Euro-Kumbaya! Among the original EMU members, all [...]
- Global| Apr 03 2018
Global Manufacturing PMIs Perform; But What the Heck About Demand?
There is a definite softer spot being hit by the global PMIs in March. The unweighted PMI average is at 52.5 in March, down from 53.2 in February and 53.5 in January. In addition, 12 of 17 country indexes (excluding the EMU aggregate) [...]
- Global| Apr 02 2018
Asia Shows a Lot of Weakness; And Japan's Tankan Is Tankin’ As a Theme of Trade War Plays Out
There is a broad-based tailing off of manufacturing PMIs in Asia in March. For the most part, the drops are not severe. But even where the queue percentile standings are relatively high, it is only because recent manufacturing [...]
- Global| Mar 29 2018
Japan's Retail Sales Show Some Life Year Over Year
Retail sales in Japan are off by 0.2% month-to-month in February, falling on that basis for the second month in a row on seasonally adjusted data. Still, retail sales are up by 1.7% from one year ago. With only two exceptions since [...]
- Global| Mar 28 2018
German Consumer Confidence Holds the High Ground
The look-ahead consumer climate metric from GfK for Germany shows an uptick in April. Confidence sits in the top 2 percentile of its historic rank of all confidence measures for Germany since early-2002. The components for the GfK [...]
- Global| Mar 27 2018
EU Commission Indexes for EMU Fall Again; What Is the Message Here?
EU Commission indexes for the EMU area turned down broadly, falling for the straight third month. The five sector indexes saw declines in three sectors (industrial, retail, and services), a gain in one (construction), and unchanged [...]
- Global| Mar 26 2018
Eurozone Economic Outlook from IFO, Istat and KOF
According to the Eurozone Economic Outlook that is jointly published by the IFO Institute, Italy's statistical office Istat and the KOF Swiss Economic Institute, EMU area GDP is projected to grow 0.6% each in the first and second [...]
- Global| Mar 23 2018
Japan’s CPI Pace Moves Higher As New Risks Emerge
Japan’s CPI moved higher, rising by 0.1% in February after a 0.4% increase in January. This marks a 12-month string of monthly CPI changes without a month-to-month decline. This is the longest such string for Japan without the CPI [...]
- Global| Mar 22 2018
Composite PMIs Slip; How Far Will They Slide?
The drop off in the EMU manufacturing PMI is sharp; two full diffusion points in March. Meanwhile, the services gauge lops off more than one full point. As a result, the overall EMU private sector PMI drops by nearly two diffusion [...]
- Global| Mar 21 2018
Spain's Trade Trends and Performance Deteriorate
Spain's trade deficit widened to 4.0 billion euros in January from 1.1 billion euros in December/ Exports fell by 2.2% m/m as imports jumped by 9.4% m/m driving the deficit higher. Spanish data are hard handicap because of their [...]
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