Economy in Brief

Real GDP was revised to a 1.0% rate of decline in Q1 (2.0% y/y) from the minuscule 0.1% increase reported initially. It was also modestly worse than consensus forecasts of a 0.5% decrease. The chain-type price index remained at the [...]

Weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped to 300,000 in the week ended May 24 from 327,000 the week before, basically reversing that week's increase and extending their recent seesaw pattern; the May 17 number was [...]

Japan imposed a new VAT tax at the start of the second quarter. Consumer behavior designed for tax avoidance has had a huge impact on retail sales in the month immediately before the imposition of the tax and in the month of the [...]

The EU Commission indices for the entire EU advanced to a level of 106.5 in May from 106.3 in April. For the European Monetary Union, the index advanced by 0.7% in May, rebounding from a 0.5% decline in April. Among the 17 EMU members [...]

The International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs reported that chain store sales declined 1.2% (+2.1% y/y) last week, down for the fourth straight week. Sales have fallen 1.2% versus April. During the last ten years [...]

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline held at $3.67 last week (0.8% y/y), steady at that level for all of this month. The price remained down from the $3.78 per gallon peak reached in February of last year. To account for [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that their total Mortgage Market Volume Index declined 1.2% last week (-49.8% y/y) and retraced the earlier week's rise. Applications remained two-thirds below the peak in September 2012. [...]

The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing and Finance Agency (FHFA) increased 0.7% during March, the strongest gain in three months. The year-to-year growth rate eased, however, to 6.4% from an 8.5% peak in July of last [...]