Economy in Brief: 2018

There are two sets of trends in February composite PMI readings. The first and most impressive story is how strong the readings are. The median reading in February is 55.2 with a median standing in the 91.8 the percentile of its five- [...]

Business activity in the service sector scaled back last month, but remained strong. The Composite Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Activity from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) eased to 59.5 during February from an [...]

The year-on-year PPI for the EMU was lower in January as the pace dropped to a 1.5% year-over-year gain from 2.2% previously. Compared to the year-on-year pace of one year ago inflation decelerated to a 1.5% gain from 3.9%. And on [...]

The Industrial Materials Price Index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research (FIBER) rose 1.4% during the last four weeks (6.8% y/y) as factory sector production around the world continued to improve. The [...]

Total sales of light vehicles during February slipped 0.5% (-2.2% y/y) to 17.08 million units (SAAR), following a 3.9% January fall to 17.16 million units, according to the Autodata Corporation. Last month's sales compared to an 18.57 [...]

Unemployment rates continues to fall in the EMU. The EMU rate itself is at 8.6% in January and in December 2017 which was revised lower. The EMU wide unemployment rate is the lowest since December 2008. Of the eleven original EMU [...]

The ISM manufacturing sector composite index jumped to 60.8 during February from 59.1 in January. It was the highest level since May 2004. A level of 58.6 had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. During the last ten [...]

The value of construction put-in-place was unchanged during January (3.2% y/y) following upwardly revised increases of 1.2% and 0.8% in November and December (these were previously reported as 0.6% and 0.7% respectively). A 0.2% gain [...]