Economy in Brief

The American Bankers Association indicated that loan delinquency rates showed varied improvement during the first quarter. Delinquency rates, as a percentage of loans with outstanding payments, mostly fell despite the overall [...]

Germany's harmonized index of consumer prices advanced by 0.5% in June after falling in April and May. With June's HICP increase, the three-month annualized inflation rate is up to 1.4%, which is higher than the 0.9% pace over six [...]

Wholesale sales increased 0.7% (6.6% y/y) during May following an unrevised 1.3% gain in April. In the durable goods sector, sales inched 0.2% higher (5.9% y/y) after 1.6% increases in the prior two months. The latest rise was held [...]

Industrial production across the euro area has taken a hammering in May. It began with weaker than expected results from Germany, followed by unexpected weakness in Italy and then in France. All the early reporters of industrial [...]

The job market showed signs of improvement to begin the new month. Initial unemployment insurance claims declined to 304,000 (-13.9% y/y) during the week ended July 5 from an unrevised 315,000 in the prior week. The latest claims [...]

The Federal Reserve Board reported that consumer credit outstanding increased $19.6 billion during May following a $26.1 billion April gain, last month reported as $26.8 billion. Expectations were for an $18.1 billion increase, [...]

The International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs reported that chain store sales increased 1.7% (3.3% y/y) last week, the third week of strong gain. Sales began this month 3.6% above the June average which slipped 0.2% [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that their total Mortgage Market Volume Index moved 1.9% higher last week (-33.6% y/y) to the highest level in four weeks. Applications remained two-thirds below the peak in September 2012. [...]