Economy in Brief: March 2021

German and other European retail sales have been put through a sort of test of fire in the wake of the covid-19 virus arrival and its various episodes of spreading. As an example, even in the U.S. where now over 20% of the population [...]

• Gasoline prices rise as driving increases. • Oil prices rise further with production cutbacks. • Natural gas prices weaken following surge. The price of regular gasoline strengthened to $2.71 per gallon (11.9% y/y) in the week ended [...]

Inflation fears have surfaced in financial markets in recent weeks. That at least is the message from rising bond yields and the climb in breakeven inflation rates that has accompanied that increase. Greater confidence in a global [...]

• Overall economic growth benefits from low price inflation. • Improvement versus 2020 emerges across sectors. • Interest rates increase. The National Association for Business Economics expects 4.0% real GDP growth in 2022 following a [...]

PMIs largely are improving in February with declines in only six and increases in eight (excluding France and Germany who already are counted in the EMU). The unweighted average for February rose for the overall group (excluding [...]

• Overall activity sets another record. • Residential building's surge led by single-family sector. • Public-sector building strengthens. Building activity continues to strengthen. The value of construction put-in-place increased 1.7% [...]

• Factory activity increases to three-year high. • Component gains are broad-based. • Pricing power improves further. Factory sector activity recovered last month following moderate weakening in January. The Institute for Supply [...]