Economy in Brief

The unemployment rate dropped by a small margin in the European Union while it remained fixed at 12% in the European Monetary Union. However the numbers of unemployed are dropping relatively sharply in both the EU and the EMU. [...]

Personal consumption expenditures increased 0.4% (3.6% y/y) last month following an upwardly revised 0.6% November gain. A 0.2% rise had been expected in the Action Economics forecast survey. During all of 2013, spending rose 3.1% [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that December pending sales of single-family homes plunged 8.7% m/m following a 0.3% slip in November, revised from a 0.2 rise. It was the seventh consecutive month of decline. [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose to 348,000 (-7.0% y/y) during the week ended January 25 from 329,000 during the week prior, revised from 326,000. It was the highest level of claims since the second week of December. [...]

Real GDP growth for Q4'13 eased to 3.2% (2.7% y/y) from 4.1% during the third quarter. The gain roughly matched consensus expectations for a 3.3% rise in the Action Economics survey. For all of last year growth also moderated to 1.9%, [...]

In January the overall sentiment indicator for the European Union (EU) fell while sentiment indicator for the European Monetary Union (EMU) rose. Still, in the monetary union there were numbers of countries that saw setbacks to their [...]

Real GDP growth for Q4'13 eased to 3.2% (2.7% y/y) from 4.1% during the third quarter. The gain roughly matched consensus expectations for a 3.3% rise in the Action Economics survey. For all of last year growth also moderated to 1.9%, [...]

At today's meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed "decided to make a further measured reduction in the pace of its asset purchases. Beginning in February, the Committee will add to its holdings of agency mortgage-backed [...]