Economy in Brief: 2019

The U.S. current account deficit widened to $134.4 billion during Q4'18 from $126.6 billion in Q3. It remained the largest quarterly deficit since Q4 2008 and compared to $131.1 billion expected in the Action Economics Forecast [...]

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services fell to $51.15 billion during January from $59.90 billion in December, revised from $59.77 billion. A deficit of $57.7 billion had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. [...]

The stalactites on the chart tell a tale of Canada flirting with some very large deficits for some time, through 2016 and into 2017. After a short hiatus, the deficit erosion seems to be back. While exports and imports both rose in [...]

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Price Index for house purchases rose 0.3% m/m (5.6% y/y) in December........ The FHFA house price index is a weighted purchase-only index that measures average price changes in repeat sales of [...]

The GfK German consumer confidence reading is lower in April at a level of 10.4, down from 10.7 in March. The drop marks the second monthly drop in a row. The level of the reading in April is the weakest since December 2018. GfK is a [...]

The consumer has become wary about the current and future economic environment. The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index declined 5.6% (-2.3% y/y) to 124.1 during March and reversed most of February's increase. The decline left [...]

U.S. retail gasoline prices rose this week to $2.62 per gallon (-0.9% y/y), continuing their upward trend from the low of $2.24 early in January. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in gasoline pump [...]

New home building activity weakened last month. Total housing starts during February declined 8.7% (-9.9% y/y) to 1.162 million units (SAAR) from 1.273 million in January, revised from 1.230 million. December's level also was revised [...]