Economy in Brief

Industrial production in the euro area has slowed to a crawl as ex-construction output rose by just 0.1% in April after a 0.4% decrease in March. Manufacturing output rose by a stronger 0.3% after a 0.2% March decline. Despite these [...]

Overall retail sales including food services & drinking places during May strengthened 1.2% (1.0% y/y) following gains of 0.2% and 1.5%. The April and March results were revised up from little-change and 1.1%. The May increase matched [...]

Total business inventories increased 0.4% during April (2.6% y/y) following an unrevised 0.1% March uptick. During the last three months, inventory growth picked up to 3.2% (AR) from its January low of 0.1%. Total business sales [...]

Total credit market borrowing was sharply reduced in Q1, according to the Federal Reserve's Financial Accounts of the U.S., which were published today. Net paydowns by the federal government and the financial sector led to a reduction [...]

Import prices increased 1.3% last month (-9.6% y/y) following a 0.2% April drop, revised from -0.3%. The Action Economics Forecast Survey anticipated a 0.8% rise. Prices of petroleum imports jumped 12.7% (-40.6% y/y) following two [...]

Initial unemployment insurance claims of 279,000 (-12.3% y/y) during the week June 6 compared to 277,000 during the prior week, initially reported as 276,000. The four week moving average rose to 278,750, the highest level since early [...]

Overall retail sales including food services & drinking places during May strengthened 1.2% (1.0% y/y) following gains of 0.2% and 1.5%. The April and March results were revised up from little-change and 1.1%. The May increase matched [...]

Inflation in Portugal is now rising sharply. Year-over-year inflation is still tepid, below 1% in both the HICP and National inflation definitions. But over three months, inflation is at a 4.5% annual rate on the HICP definition and [...]