Economy in Brief

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that its Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions jumped to 27.54 during September after moving lower in August to 14.69. It was the highest level since October 2009 and [...]

The euro area trade surplus shrank to 12.2 billion euros in July from 13.8 billion euros in June. The surplus is still higher than it was 12 months ago when it stood at 11.4 billion euros. Export growth fell by 0.2% in July as imports [...]

Total business inventories increased 0.4% in July (5.9% y/y) after an unrevised 0.4% rise during June. For all of last quarter, faster accumulation of inventories added 1.4 percentage points to real GDP growth after a 1.2 percentage [...]

Import prices fell 0.9% during August (-0.4% y/y) following a revised 0.3% decline during July, earlier reported as -0.2%. A 1.0% shortfall was expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. A 4.4% decline (-5.3% y/y) in petroleum [...]

Euro area industrial output showed a strong rebound of 1% in July from its decline of 0.3% in June. However the gain is still not persuasive. In the new quarter, the quarter-to-date calculations show a rise in output at a 2.7% pace [...]

Retail and food service sales improved 0.6% during August (5.0% y/y) following a revised 0.3% July gain, revised from no change. A 0.5% increase had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Sales increases were broad- [...]

The Federal Government posted a $128.7 billion budget deficit during August of FY 2014, and roughly matched expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. For the first eleven months of the current fiscal year, the government [...]

The Quarterly Service Sector Survey, produced by the U.S. Census Bureau, is designed to give timely, detailed indications of activity in the service sector. These indicators feed into estimates of GDP. The latest figures covering [...]