Economy in Brief

Finland's economy has been depressed for the last four years. It is still struggling to shrug off the loss of a lot of logging-related business to other nations and the departure Nokia and related technology businesses. While the EMU [...]

Gasoline prices eased last week to an average $2.80 per gallon at the pump (-22.0% y/y) but remained higher than the low of $2.04 late in January. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in pump prices. [...]

The industrial commodity price index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research (FIBER) deteriorated during the last month. Factory sector production so far this year, both total and industrial supplies, has [...]

The industrial commodity price index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research (FIBER) deteriorated during the last month. Factory sector production so far this year, both total and industrial supplies, has [...]

Exports and the EMU trade surplus fell in May. Exports fell by 1.5%. Imports were flat. The trade surplus fell to 21.2 billion euros in May from 23.9 billion euros in April. Exports fell on a broad front in May with manufacturing [...]

Housing starts during June increased 9.8% (26.5% y/y) to 1.174 million (AR) from 1.069 million in May, last month reported as 1.036 million. June's figure exceeded expectations for 1.108 million starts in the Action Economics Forecast [...]

The consumer price index increased 0.3% during June (0.1% y/y) following an unrevised 0.4% May gain. Prices excluding food & energy improved 0.2% (1.8% y/y) after a 0.1% rise. Both increases matched expectations in the Action [...]

Spanish orders and shipments (turnover) show some strength in May, but sequential growth rates for both show some evidence of slowing. Orders popped in May, surging by 3.3% in one month. This was the strongest monthly gain since [...]