Economy in Brief

Perspective: As we get excited about the return to growth in Europe, or at least hope that it will return to growth after what was a worse-than-expected first-quarter, it's important to look back and think of days gone by. While I [...]

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank reported that its General Business Conditions Index for May dipped to 15.4 from 16.6 in April. Nevertheless, the latest figure remained nearly the highest since last September and beat consensus [...]

Housing starts in April gained 13.2% to 1.072 million (AR, 26.4% y/y) from 947,000 during March, revised from 946,000. The latest figure was the highest since November and easily beat expectations for 980,000 starts in the Action [...]

Industrial output's trend slowed in April, as output fell by 0.6% following a 2% spurt in March. Utilities' output fell sharply by 5.2% after a 0.3% gain in March. Mining output continues to be strong, slowing to a 1.4% gain after a [...]

Consumer prices increased 0.3% (2.0% y/y) in April, the largest increase since last June. The number equaled consensus expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The pick-up in the year-on-year change from 1.5% in March to [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped to 297,000 (-16.3% y/y) in the week ended May 10 from 321,000 in the week ended May 3, revised from 319,000. Expectations had been for 320,000 claims in the Action Economics Forecast [...]

The euro area put in a disappointing performance in the first quarter of 2014 as GDP is only rising at a 0.8% annual rate. Among the early reporters, GDP declined in Portugal, dropped sharply in the Netherlands, fell in Italy and fell [...]

Industrial production momentum in the euro area has been short-circuited in March. Industrial production excluding construction fell by 0.3%. Combined with a decline in January, the three-month growth rate logs a -0.8% annual rate. [...]