Economy in Brief

The overall Final Demand Producer Price Index fell 0.5% during February (-0.6% y/y) following an unrevised 0.8% January decline. A 0.2% rise was expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Prices excluding food & energy also [...]

French sales volumes recovered in February, rising by 1.2% after two straight monthly declines in excess of 1%. In the last four months, French sales volumes have moved by more than 1% in each month: twice up and twice down. This is [...]

The Federal Government reported a $192.327 billion budget deficit during February compared to a $193.532 billion deficit during February of 2014. For the first five months of Fiscal Year 2015, however, the deficit deepened to $386.537 [...]

Total business inventories were roughly stable during January (3.4% y/y), the same as they were in December, earlier reported as +0.1%. During the last three months, inventory growth slowed to 0.3% (AR) from its high of 7.6% late in [...]

Prices of most internationally traded goods remained weak in February, but petroleum was a notable exception for both imports and exports. Overall import prices rose 0.4% (-9.4% y/y), including an 8.1% surge in petroleum; nonpetroleum [...]

Downward pressure on prices of internationally traded goods is ongoing. Import prices declined 2.8% during January (-8.0% y/y) following a revised 1.9% December fall, earlier reported as -2.5%. It was the largest of seven straight [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance declined to 289,000 during the week ended March 7 from 325,000 in the prior week, revised from 320,000. The latest level was the lowest in three weeks. The four-week moving average of initial [...]

EMU industrial output fell in January by a thin 0.1%. Still, the drop was a surprise. Output in manufacturing fell by 0.3%. Overall output is up by 0.2% over the past year while manufacturing output is up by just 0.1% over the past [...]