Economy in Brief: 2012

China's seasonally adjusted trade surplus increased $9.6 billion in December to $13.5 billion from $3.9 in November. Exports were down $1.6 billion from $165.4 billion in November to $163.9 billion in December. The chief source of the [...]

The pump price for regular gasoline rose another eight cents last week to $3.38 per gallon following the prior week's four cent gain. Retail prices usually decline this time of year with reduced seasonal demand. To account for this [...]

Small businesses are gaining more confidence in the economy. The National Federation of Independent Business indicated that its December index of small business optimism rose to 93.8 from an unrevised 92.0 in November. The latest [...]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in its Job Openings & Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) that the November job openings rate slipped to 2.3% from an unrevised 2.4%. Nevertheless, the latest reading remained improved versus the [...]

Consumers felt confident enough during November to significantly strengthen their usage of credit. The Federal Reserve reported that overall consumer credit surged $20.4B after a revised $6.0B gain during October, initially reported [...]

The profile in the chart of year-over-year growth rates is unmistakable. The trends in the table are clear as well. In terms of growth rates from one year in and shorter, only construction and consumer goods are showing any resilience [...]

Consumer sentiment in Ireland began to improve early this year but took a turn for the worse in November and December as the financial difficulties in the Euro Area intensified. The index of Consumer sentiment (Q4 95=100) finished up [...]

German orders are losing momentum again and rapidly after a false signal of a pause in the unraveling as of October. Orders in October had surged by 5% (M-o-M) and a surge of that degree blunted a lot of downward momentum that had [...]