Economy in Brief

Germany's PPI rose by 0.1% in March, still dropping by 1.7% year-over-year. The chart shows that the year-over-year drop is slightly less than it was a month ago and that the downward progression in the PPI trend may be abating. This [...]

The Index of Leading Economic Indicators from the Conference Board increased 0.2% during March (5.2% y/y) following a 0.1% rise, revised from 0.2%. A 0.3% rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The increase [...]

Prices recently gained upward momentum. The consumer price index increased 0.2% (-0.1% y/y) in March and February following declines in the prior three months. Last month's rise matched expectations in the Action Economics Forecast [...]

The EMU-wide harmonized index of consumer prices (HICP) fell again in March, marking the fourth consecutive month in which the price index has fallen. Looking at the earliest EMU members that have reported data (in the table below), [...]

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank reported that its General Factory Sector Business Conditions Index for April improved to 7.5 from an unrevised 5.0 in January. The number, nevertheless, remained well below the high of 40.2 [...]

Initial claims for jobless insurance in the week ended April 11 nudged up to 294,000 (-3.5% y/y) from 282,000 in the prior week, revised from 281,000. Despite the rise, the four-week moving average of claims of 282,750 was nearly the [...]

European auto registrations popped in January and have continued to build on that strong gain. Monthly registrations are up for four consecutive months. Annual gains are in the 7% to 10% range consistently in 2015 (three months in). [...]

Housing starts during March improved 2.0% to 926,000 units (-3.5% y/y). The gain followed declines during the prior two months totaling 16.0%. February's level of starts was revised to 908,000 from 897,000. Last month's improvement [...]