Economy in Brief: 2017

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending home sales increased 1.6% m/m (0.3% y/y) in December after an unrevised 2.5% November decline. These sales are reported as an index with 2001=100. During all of last [...]

The EU area index compiled by the EU Commission fell in January while the EMU area index rose for the fourth month in a row. The EU index sits in the 77th percentile of its historic queue of values while the EMU index resides in the [...]

Personal income increased 0.3% (3.5% y/y) during December following a 0.1% November uptick, initially reported as no change. A 0.4% rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. During all of 2016, income grew 3.5%, [...]

New orders for durable declined 0.4% during December (+1.6% y/y) following a little-revised 4.8% November drop. A 3.0% rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The decline in orders was prompted by a 2.2% drop [...]

French business and consumer confidence continue to work higher in January. The consumer measure has reached the level of 100 for the first time since late in 2007, posting a normalization milestone of sorts. At this level the French [...]

Economic growth decelerated during Q4'16 to 1.9% from a 3.5% gain in Q3. For all of last year, growth also decelerated to 1.6% from 2.6% in 2015. The Q4 figure fell short of expectations for a 2.1% rise in the Action Economics [...]

The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators increased 0.5% during December (1.1% y/y) following a revised 0.1% November uptick, initially reported as unchanged. It was the strongest gain since July, and [...]

Sales of new single-family homes declined 10.4% to 536,000 during December from a revised 598,000 in November, initially reported as 592,000. Sales of 589,000 had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. During December, [...]