Economy in Brief: 2019

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 [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) reported that its Small Business Optimism Index of 101.8 during March was basically unchanged from February, but remained down sharply from its August peak of 108.8. The index [...]

Retail gasoline prices increased to $2.75 per gallon last week (1.9% year-on-year), the highest level since early November 2018. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in gasoline pump prices. The [...]

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 [...]

Manufacturers' orders declined 0.5% (+1.5% y/y) during February following little change during January, revised from 0.1%. A 0.1% uptick in orders had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Orders for durable goods [...]

The Fed has a problem; politics has invaded its policy turf. Criticism by President Trump over the Federal Reserve decisions to hike official rates has now escalated to an even higher level as the Administration's top economic advisor [...]

Consumer Credit - M/M change $17.04253 Billion in Jan 2018 - Nov 21.06845 2018 - Dec 15.37630 2019 - Jan 17.04253 The consumer credit data are available in Haver's USECON database. The Action Economics figures are contained in the [...]

Consumer Credit - M/M change $17.04253 Billion in Jan 2018 - Nov 21.06845 2018 - Dec 15.37630 2019 - Jan 17.04253 The consumer credit data are available in Haver's USECON database. The Action Economics figures are contained in the [...]