Economy in Brief

Japan's seasonally adjusted retail sales were flat in April after a 1.5% gain in March. However, sequential sales show spending by consumers has been declining on balance over three-month, six-month and 12-month. Over 12 months, not [...]

The U.S. Treasury Department reported a $52.5 billion budget deficit during May of 2016, smaller than the $84.1 billion deficit twelve months earlier. So far in FY'16, however, the budget deficit totaled $407.1 billion, up 11.0% [...]

The National Association of Realtors reported that the Composite Index of Home Affordability declined 4.5% during April to 162.4, the lowest level since August. The index was 24.3% lower than its peak in January 2014. During the last [...]

Industrial production rose in April in each and every one of the early reporting EMU members in the table. Month-to-month IP increases range from a low 0.9% rise in Italy to an outsized 6.7% gain in Ireland. These are very sizeable [...]

Inventories at the wholesale level increased 0.6% during April following a 0.2% March gain, revised from 0.1%. It was the largest increase since last June. Nondurable goods sector inventories rose 1.3% (5.5% y/y) as farm-product [...]

Total borrowing in the U.S. decreased in Q1 to $2,493 billion at a seasonally adjusted annual rate, down from $3,950 billion in Q4 2015, according to the Financial Accounts of the U.S., released today by the Federal Reserve Board. The [...]

German trade flows came up lame in April as exports were flat and imports fell by 0.2%. These performances follow a 1.9% gain for exports in March and a 2.3% drop for imports. Exports grow but imports stay slow or worse Suddenly [...]

Initial claims for jobless insurance fell to 264,000 (-15.6% y/y) during the week ended June 4 versus 268,000 claims in the prior week, revised from 267,000. Despite the weekly decline, the average of claims in May were 6.7% above [...]