Economy in Brief: May 2017

Total sales of light vehicles increased 1.6% during April to 16.88 million units (SAAR), according to the Autodata Corporation. Despite the monthly rise, sales declined 3.0% y/y. During the first four months of 2017, sales averaged [...]

The EMU unemployment rate remains low. The EMU rate in March stabilized at February's cycle low. In February, four of 11 of these early EMU members saw their unemployment rates fall. Only Austria saw its rate rise in February. In [...]

Regular gasoline prices fell to $2.41 per gallon last week (+7.6% y/y) compared to $2.45 during the prior week. Prices remained lower than the 2014 high of $3.71 per gallon. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the [...]

The value of construction put-in-place eased 0.2% (+3.6% y/y) in March following 1.8% and 0.8% increases during February & January. These latter two figures were revised up from 0.8% and -0.4%, respectively. The latest figure compares [...]

Japan's manufacturing PMI gauge is higher in April at a 52.7, up from 52.4 in March. Ranked over all values since January 2012, it stands in the top 87.5 percentile of all recent surveys. It's a good solid report. Japan's services [...]

The ISM composite index of factory sector activity during April fell to 54.8 from an unrevised 57.2 in March. It was the lowest level since December. A level of 56.5 had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. A decline [...]

Personal income increased 0.2% during March following a 0.3% February rise, revised from 0.4%. A 0.3% increased had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The 4.5% y/y gain compared to 3.6% growth during all of 2016. [...]