Economy in Brief

The Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions remained negative during September, nearly the weakest reading since the recession. The latest figure of -14.67 compared to an unrevised -14.92 in August. These diffusion [...]

The ZEW expectations reading, the part of this report that gets the headline, fell to 12.1 in September from 25.0 in August, better than halving its value. ZEW expectations have dropped more than this in one month only about 8.5% of [...]

Overall retail sales including food services & drinking places during August increased 0.2% (1.6% y/y). A 0.3% rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. July's 0.7% gain and June's slight decline were little [...]

Only moderate improvement in U.S. economic activity combined with weakness in the rest of the world provided little support to crude materials prices last month. The industrial commodity price index from the Foundation for [...]

Consumer prices in Italy are very well-behaved. The HICP headline rose by 0.1% in August as the core was flat. The domestic CPI fell by 0.1% in August. Italy's 12-month inflation is 0.5%; the core measure is up by 0.9%; the domestic [...]

The U.S. Treasury Department reported a $64.4 billion budget deficit during August, half the $128.7 billion deficit during August of 2014. An $84.0 billion deficit had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Because [...]

The overall Final Demand Producer Price Index was flat in August (-0.8% y/y) following a 0.2% increase in July. The Action Economics Forecast Survey looked for a 0.1% decrease. Prices excluding food & energy were also stronger than [...]

France's current account slipped into deficit as its deficit on goods trade moved into deeper deficit. Export growth has been exceeding import growth for some time but only over the last nine months have exports got higher enough to [...]