Economy in Brief: 2005

The University of Michigan's preliminary reading of consumer sentiment in April fell 4.2%. The m/m decline was the largest since last May, was much deeper than Consensus expectations for a more moderate decline and pulled Sentiment to [...]

The 1.8% rise in import prices last month greatly exceeded Consensus expectations for a 1.3% increase and the prior month's gain was revised up. Petroleum prices jumped 10.6% m/m and pulled prices one third higher than last year, but [...]

The April Empire State Index of General Business Conditions in New York's manufacturing industries dropped sharply 3.12 from an upwardly revised March level. The decline was to the lowest level since 2003. The new orders component [...]

Industrial production matched Consensus expectations and rose 0.3% in March following a downwardly revised 0.2% gain in February. The increase was due to cold weather which lifted utility output by 3.7% (5.0% y/y). Factory sector [...]

Industrial production matched Consensus expectations and rose 0.3% in March following a downwardly revised 0.2% gain in February. The increase was due to cold weather which lifted utility output by 3.7% (5.0% y/y). Factory sector [...]

A couple of weeks ago, we noted here that higher energy prices had failed to ignite new inflation in Italy. The same is true for some other countries, whose CPI data were reported today for March. In Poland, the seasonally adjusted [...]

Total business inventories rose another 0.5% in February but figures back to 2002 were revised somewhat lower. Nevertheless, the y/y rate of inventory accumulation continued strong at 8.2% yet still lagged the improvement in sales [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell last week by 10,000 to 330,000 versus an upwardly revised level the prior week. Consensus expectations had been for 330,000 claims. During the last ten years there has been a (negative) [...]