Economy in Brief

Europe gets another taste of deflation as its unemployment rate hangs high. European (EU) unemployment came in at 9.5% for the second consecutive month in August. In the EMU, the unemployment rate is lodged at a much higher level, at [...]

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index in September unexpectedly added to its outsized August gains. The overall index rose 1.7% in September from August to 103.0 on top of a 11.3%m/m jump in August. The September reading [...]

Gasoline prices at the pump were fairly stable last week at $2.32 per gallon (-30.8% y/y) but remained below $2.84 in mid-June. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in pump prices. The seasonally [...]

The overall EU sentiment indices are moving higher year-over-year in the three largest EMU nations and for the EMU index itself. In September, the indices of the three largest EMU members also moved higher while the index for Spain, [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending sales of single-family homes declined 1.4% during August (+6.7% y/y) following an unrevised 0.5% July gain. Expectations were for a 0.4% increase according to Bloomberg. [...]

Personal income increased 0.3% during August following a 0.5% July rise, revised from 0.4%. The latest gain was the weakest since March and disappointed expectations for a 0.4% rise in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The source [...]

Italian consumer confidence rose sharply to 112.7 in September from 109.3 in August. The monthly change in confidence marks a substantial rise that has been larger only 15 times in the last 248 months, making it a top 7% event. The [...]

Real economic activity grew at a revised 3.9% annual rate in the second quarter (2.7% y/y) versus last month's estimate of 3.7% and the initial estimate of a 2.3% rise. This compares to a 0.6% Q1 advance, which was restrained by [...]