Economy in Brief

Consumer prices held steady during November (1.2% y/y) following an unrevised 0.1% October slip. Expectations had been for a 0.1% uptick. Consumer prices excluding food and energy increased 0.2% (1.7% y/y), stronger than the expected [...]

Nonfarm business sector productivity matched expectations and grew 3.0% last quarter, revised up from the initial estimate of 1.9% growth. Over the past year, however, worker productivity only ticked up 0.3%, revised from unchanged. [...]

Industrial production jumped 1.1% last month (3.3% y/y) following a 0.1% October uptick, initially reported as -0.1%. A 0.3% gain had been expected in the Action Economics forecast survey. A 3.9% jump (2.9% y/y) in utility output [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that its Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions for December ticked up to 0.98 from an unrevised November reading of -2.21. The gain disappointed expectations for a [...]

Japan's industrial output rose by 1% in October, beating expectations. Output in Japan cratered in early 2012; it has been gradually advancing since then. The year-over-year growth rate of 5.3% is the highest since May 2012. Japan has [...]

Price inflation at the wholesale level is virtually nonexistent. The Producer Price Index for finished goods slipped 0.1% last month (+0.7% y/y) following an unrevised 0.2% October decline. A 0.1% uptick had been expected in the [...]

Import prices declined 0.6% (-1.5% y/y) last month, the same as during October. A 0.7% drop had been expected. The 3.5% drop (-2.8% y/y) in petroleum prices, roughly the same as in October, accounted for last month's fall in overall [...]

Total business inventories increased 0.7% in October (3.6% y/y) following a 0.6% September gain. These inventories accompanied a 0.5% rise in business sales (3.9% y/y) after September's 0.3% increase. As a result, the inventory-to- [...]