Economy in Brief

It's been a harsh winter in some regions of the country. Housing starts during February declined 17.0% to 897,000 units (-3.3% y/y) from 1.081 million in January, revised from 1.065 million. The decline disappointed expectations for [...]

Germany's ZEW index saw increases in both its current index and its index of expectations. Both are in `good shape' in terms of their levels and in terms of their momentum. The current index is higher than its March value historically [...]

After rising earlier this month,gasoline prices posted a 4 cent decline last week to $2.45 cents per gallon. Nevertheless, prices remained 40 cents higher (20.0%) than the low seven weeks ago. Despite the gains, prices remained well [...]

The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo declined to 53 in March (+15.2% y/y) from an unrevised 55 in February. It was the lowest figure since July. During the last ten years, there [...]

Industrial production ticked 0.1% higher during February following declines in three of the four previous months. January production fell 0.3%, earlier reported as a 0.2% rise. The latest gain was helped by cold winter temperatures [...]

Consumer confidence in Japan has averaged a reading of 39.4 over the last 12 months. This month's pick-up to 40.7 in February from 39.1 in January barely improves on its one-year average. Moreover, the three-month and six-month [...]

The Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions fell 6.90 during March after declining to 7.78 in February. The readings from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York remained well below the 27.41 peak reached last [...]

The Federal Reserve's financial accounts data (formerly known as the "flow of funds") for Q4 show total credit market borrowing at $2.47 trillion annual rate, up from $2.21 trillion in Q3. For 2014 as a whole, borrowing was $2.10 [...]