Euro area retail sales fell in March for the first time since October 2015. The 0.5% drop is the largest drop since sales fell by 0.5% in September 2014. That drop proved to a one-off affair and sales thereafter accelerated. In this [...]
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 04 2016Euro Area Retail Sales Fall/Slow, Raising Questions
- Global| May 03 2016
PPI Drops Abate in March But Continue to Decelerate from 6-Mo to 3-Mo
The euro area PPI excluding construction rose by 0.1% in March but its progression from 12-month to six-month to three-month continues to show increasingly rapid deceleration. With a rise in prices in March, that decelerating trend is [...]
- Global| May 02 2016
European Manufacturing PMIs Make Small Gains in April
In these early reporting EMU countries (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, and the Netherlands), the manufacturing PMIs are lower in three in April (France, Austria, and the Netherlands). Only two were lower in March (France and [...]
- Global| Apr 29 2016
Euro Area Unemployment Drops to 4.5-Year Low
EMU unemployment fell to 10.2% in March after being stuck at 10.4% for three consecutive months. The EU rate fell to 8.8% in March after being steady at 8.9% in each of the two previous months. Most impressive is the cross-sectional [...]
- Global| Apr 28 2016
EU and Euro Area Show Some Improvement in April
The EU Commission Indices for the EU and EMU showed gains in April. The EU index rose to 105.1 this month from 104.6 in March; the EMU index rose by 0.9% reversing its 0.9% drop last month. The EU index sits in the 60.7 percentile of [...]
- Global| Apr 27 2016
Italian Consumer Confidence Edges Back
The Italian consumer confidence index made a large step back in February; since then, it has hovered at a lower plateau. In April, there was slight further erosion to that plateau. While consumer confidence made a slight step lower, [...]
- Global| Apr 26 2016
PPI Inflation Meets Euro Area and Friends
As oil prices gyrate, we continue to see weakness in PPI prices in the EMU and other EU member nations (for now the U.K. is still an EU member nation). However, in March, we do see some evidence of month-to-month PPI increases. [...]
- Global| Apr 25 2016
Germany's Ifo Gauge Slips Amid Crosscurrents
The Ifo business climate index slipped to 106.6 in April from 106.7 in March but had been expected to rise. We plot the chart and offer a table of the diffusion version of the overall and sector indices which afford a look at Ifo [...]
- Global| Apr 22 2016
Euro Area Still Struggling...with Its Growth and Its Culture
The EMU flash readings for manufacturing and services tell a pretty clear story of the euro area's ongoing struggle to sustain stronger growth. Both sectors remain above 50, showing expansion. But neither is impressively or even [...]
- Global| Apr 21 2016
U.K. Retail Sales Fall Sharply and Raise Concerns; As Elsewhere Life Goes On
U.K. retail sales fell sharply in March dropping by 1.4% after falling by 0.7% in February. These two drops followed a sizeable hike of 2% in January. But that 2% rise is less impressive than it seems having followed a drop of 1.2%. [...]
- Global| Apr 20 2016
Biggest Year-on-Year German PPI Drop Since Jan 2010 Raises Questions
As we look at the weakest year-on-year German PPI drop since January 2010 -over six years ago- we are now deeper into a recovery and price conditions are worsening. There is some sort of lesson there. I am reminded of Gilda Radner's [...]
- Global| Apr 19 2016
ZEW Expectations Make Gain
The ZEW current index continues its slow erosion, but expectations rose to 11.2 in April from 4.3 in March. At 11.2, expectations are at the border of the bottom one-third of their historic queue of values. The slipping current index, [...]
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