Economy in Brief

Overall retail sales including food services & drinking places during June declined 0.3% (2.9% y/y) following downwardly revised readings of 1.0% and no change during May and April, earlier reported as 1.2% and 0.2%. The June decline [...]

In the current month with overall IP falling, it is the rich getting richer as the big four economies show advances in their national manufacturing IP output. But over the past year it is a different story. It is the austerity [...]

The Federal Government reported a $51.8 billion budget surplus during June compared to a $70.5 billion surplus during June of 2014. A $41.0 billion surplus had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. For the first nine [...]

Dutch manufacturing IP has just made its third consecutive gain year-over-year. However, overall IP excluding construction (the headline series) is lower year-over-year for two months running. Shorter term trends, those inside one [...]

Inventories at the wholesale level increased 0.8% during May (5.0% y/y) following an unrevised 0.4% April gain. The rise was paced by a 4.4% jump (-16.7% y/y) in petroleum inventories which followed a 3.1% April increase. There also [...]

The National Association of Realtors Composite Index of Home Affordability declined 3.7% during May to 159.7 (-0.9% y/y), down for the fourth consecutive month. The decline was driven by a 4.7% rise in home prices which have increased [...]

Both Italy and France show that broad IP trends are improving based on year-over-year growth rates, as the chart clearly demonstrates. But their short-term trends show very different dynamics. Even the year-over-year trends show very [...]

Initial unemployment insurance claims increased to 297,000 (-5.9% y/y) during the week ended July 4 from 282,000 during the prior week, revised from 281,000. The four week moving average rose to 279,500, the highest level since early- [...]