Economy in Brief: 2017

It's a split decision on the EMU this month as services are weaker and manufacturing is stronger. However, the relatively greater services weight has the tiebreaker in terms of the impact on the overall PMI which is slightly lower in [...]

Regular gasoline prices dipped to $2.33 per gallon (+25.3% y/y) last week following a slip to $2.36 per gallon in the prior week. Prices peaked at $2.39 earlier in the month, and remained down from a 2014 high of $3.71 per gallon. [...]

Japan's sector surveys were only able to crawl higher in November as the industrial and services gauges rose while construction slipped to hold the overall advance back. The all-industry index rose to 103.6 in November from 103.3 in [...]

The concept of Net Domestic Product used in the following report can be extrapolated from the GDP accounts by taking into consideration the loss of value of assets (depreciation) due to aging and normal use. Over the last 50 years, [...]

As the ECB met this past week, policy was kept on an even keel despite pressures from rising oil prices. ECB President Mario Draghi has said that he is unconvinced that there is an underlying trend to inflation. Draghi sees energy, a [...]

The euro area has set a new record high current account surplus at 36.1 billion euros in November. And while the ECB has just met and decided to kick the can down the road for a bit longer, international policy is showing itself to be [...]

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve reported that its General Factory Sector Business Conditions Index rose to 23.6 during January from December's 19.7. It was the highest level since November 2014. The latest monthly reading compared to [...]

Initial unemployment insurance filings declined to 234,000 during the week ended January 14 from 249,000 in the prior week, revised from 247,000. Expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey called for 252,000 claims. The [...]