Economy in Brief: May 2016

The euro area PPI excluding construction rose by 0.1% in March but its progression from 12-month to six-month to three-month continues to show increasingly rapid deceleration. With a rise in prices in March, that decelerating trend is [...]

The value of construction put-in-place improved 0.3% during March (8.6% y/y) following a 1.0% February increase, revised from -0.5%. January's 0.3% decline was revised from a 2.1% rise. A 0.5% increase was expected in the Action [...]

The ISM Composite Index of manufacturing activity posted a sharp decline to 50.8 during April. The move reversed much of a rise to an unrevised 51.8 in March, and disappointed expectations for 51.3 in the Action Economics Forecast [...]

In these early reporting EMU countries (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, and the Netherlands), the manufacturing PMIs are lower in three in April (France, Austria, and the Netherlands). Only two were lower in March (France and [...]