Economy in Brief

Moderate improvement in manufacturing sector activity continued last month following a harsh winter. The Composite Index of Manufacturing Sector Activity from the Institute for Supply Management improved to 53.7 during March from an [...]

Japan's much awaited Tankan report for large enterprises showed an increase for manufacturing firms in the first quarter to 17 from 16 in the fourth quarter. But nonmanufacturing firms saw an increase to 24 from 20 in the fourth [...]

Petroleum prices resumed their upward movement last week. The price for a gallon of regular gasoline increased to $3.58 (-1.8% y/y) and was at the highest level since early September. Prices remained below the $3.78 per gallon peak [...]

Chicago Purchasing Managers indicated that their March index of General Business Conditions fell to 55.9 from an unrevised 59.8 in February. The figure was the lowest since August and missed expectations for 60.0, according to the [...]

German retail sales are engaged in an unexpected pick up. Sales are up strongly for the two consecutive months. Sequential growth rates show clear acceleration in the retail sales spending patterns culminating in a 6.1% growth rate [...]

The European Union continues to make smart gains in March with its overall index of sentiment up by 1.2 percentage points. For the broader EU, the overall sentiment index has risen to 105.3 in March from 105 in February. EU industrial [...]

Personal consumption expenditures increased 0.3% (3.0% y/y) during February after a 0.2% January gain, revised from 0.1%. A 0.2% rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Clothing purchases led the improvement [...]

New data available through February 2014 point to the continuing sluggishness in money growth and outright weakness in credit growth in the European Monetary Union. Mario Draghi, European Central Bank President, must wonder sometimes [...]