Economy in Brief: October 2008

At an emergency meeting, the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee lowered the federal funds rate by 50 basis points to 1.5%. The move was an action coordinated with the Central Banks of Europe and Japan. The Fed indicated that "the move [...]

At an emergency meeting, the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee lowered the federal funds rate by 50 basis points to 1.5%. The move was an action coordinated with the Central Banks of Europe and Japan. The Fed indicated that "the move [...]

During August, consumer credit outstanding dropped as it never has before. The $7.9 billion m/m decline was by far the largest in the series' postwar history. On a percentage basis, credit outstanding did fall a more moderate 0.3%, [...]

With calls for lower interest rates in the Euro Area, the United States and the United Kingdom and yesterday's steep cut of one percent in Australia's base rate, the action of the Bank Indonesia in raising its key interest rate [...]

The German economy shows some resilience in its factory sector in August as orders reverse a string of eight months of declines to rise by 3.6% in August. Overall and foreign orders had previously each fallen for eight months in a [...]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated in its Job Openings & Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report for August that the number of job openings fell 6.1% (-21.2% y/y) from July. The drop followed a 0.1% downtick during July and since [...]

According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, chain store sales inched up 0.1% last week after the prior week's 0.2% dip. The level of sales in early October were 0.9% below the September average which fell 1.9% from [...]

For a gallon of regular gasoline, the retail price fell by a nickel last week to the lowest level since mid-April. According to the U.S. Department of Energy survey, at an average of $3.48 per gallon gasoline prices are down 63 cents [...]