Economy in Brief: 2019

The headline Final Demand Producer Price Index using new methodology fell 0.2% during December following a 0.1% uptick in November. A 0.1% decline had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. From December-to-December, [...]

Gasoline prices averaged a fairly steady $2.25 per gallon this past week (-12.1% y/y) but remained below the $2.90 October peak. Haver Analytics constructs factors to adjust for the marked seasonal variation in prices. The seasonally- [...]

IP in context Industrial output in the EMU has just made its sharpest year-on-year drop in over five and one half years (when IP was engaged in a string of 20 straight months of year-on-year IP declines). The one-month drop of 1.7% is [...]

The Industrial Materials Price Index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research (FIBER) has been weakening since late-June when the index reached its peak. During the last month alone, it's down 1.9% and over [...]

The National Association of Realtors reported that its Composite Index of Home Affordability declined 10.6% y/y during November to 144.0. The index was one-third below its peak in January 2013. Month-to-month, home affordability [...]

The aggregated sector EMU totals for industrial production are not yet in, but there is a considerable country detail available and that shows widespread EMU weakness. Of the 11 EMU countries whose data are contained in the table, [...]

Prices remained under control during 2018. The Consumer Price Index slipped 0.1% in December (+1.9% y/y) following stability in November. It was the first decline in nine months and it matched expectations in the Action Economics [...]

The thrill is gone in France. In 2017, French manufacturing did exceptionally well, but it lost steam gradually in 2018 and at end-2018 the momentum is gone and output in manufacturing is falling for the third consecutive month. The [...]