Recent Updates
- US: New Residential Sales with Revisions (Apr)
- Flash PMIs: Japan, France, Germany, Euro Area, UK, US (May)
- UK: Public Finance (Apr), CBI Distributive Trades Survey (May)
- Mexico: Construction (Mar), SemiMonthly CPI (May)
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Economy in Brief
U.S. Energy Prices Rise Further
Retail gasoline prices increased to $4.59 per gallon in the week ended May 23...
S&P Flash PMIs Are Mixed in May As Manufacturing Erodes Slowly
Among the early reporting countries in Europe and Japan, the S&P PMI readings for May tilt toward weakness...
NABE Lowers Growth Expectations for Next Year & 2022
The NABE expects the economic expansion to continue through its third year...
Chicago Fed National Activity Index Improves in April
The Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) rose to 0.47 during April...
IFO Registers Small Rebound on the Month
Germany's IFO index has rebounded on the month...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
Profits & Margins Plunge In Q1: Expect More Margin Contraction As Fed Squeezes Inflation
The Many Links of Inflation Cycle: Hard Landing Is Needed to Crack Them
Peak Inflation and Fed Policy: A Relationship which Should Worry the Fed and Scare Investors
Why Have the Yields on TIPS Been Negative in the Past Two Years?
by Robert Brusca August 14, 2007
Inflation is slowing on a broad front in the UK in July - a quite unexpected development. Year/year, the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) is now below the 2% ceiling rate and suddenly that BOE inflation letter explaining why inflation had drifted above 3% seems oh so distant. The Retail Price Index (RPI) is still high but the Retail Price Index ex Mortgage Interest Payments (RPIX) tells the tale of sharply lower inflation too. Food costs are sharply lower. So are clothing and footwear, where price fell over three months.
This could be somewhat of a catalytic month for the BOE as well as for the ECB. Not only are we in the midst of financial turmoil at a time that the ECB had pointed strongly to a rate hike, but GDP growth has slowed. Now inflation, the reason for hiking rates is sharply lower, at least in the UK but also in France. Are things changing all that much or is this coincidence? Do you believe in Coincidence?
| M/M % Change | % SAAR | ||||||
| Jul-07 | Jun-07 | May-07 | 3-MO | 6-MO | 12-MO | Yr Ago | |
| HICP | -0.3% | 0.3% | 0.1% | 0.4% | 1.5% | 1.9% | 2.4% |
| RPI: All Items | -0.3% | 0.6% | 0.3% | 2.4% | 3.5% | 3.8% | 3.3% |
| RPIX (ex mortgage interest) | -0.3% | 0.5% | 0.2% | 1.4% | 2.3% | 2.7% | 3.1% |
| RPI ex seasonal food | -0.2% | 0.6% | 0.3% | 2.5% | 3.5% | 3.9% | 3.2% |
| Food & Beverages | -0.9% | 0.9% | 0.2% | 0.7% | 3.7% | 3.2% | 2.7% |
| Housing & HH Expenditures | -0.5% | 1.0% | 0.3% | 3.1% | 4.3% | 6.8% | 5.1% |
| Clothing & Footwear | 0.1% | 0.1% | -0.4% | -0.8% | 2.8% | 0.1% | -1.3% |
| Leisure Services | -0.1% | 0.3% | 0.2% | 1.9% | 1.3% | 2.8% | 2.1% |
| Leisure Goods | -0.1% | -1.4% | 0.1% | -5.6% | -4.8% | -3.0% | -2.5% |
| Motoring Expenditures | -0.4% | 0.7% | 1.0% | 5.2% | 3.9% | -0.3% | 3.1% |
| Fares and Travel Costs | 0.0% | 0.9% | 3.1% | 17.3% | 10.9% | 8.6% | 0.0% |
