Economy in Brief

PPI prices in EMU continue to be weak. Prices fell in October and they are lower year over year. The table, featuring 10 EMU members plus the UK, shows producer prices lower across the board in October except for Ireland where prices [...]

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline prices edged 2 cents lower last week to $3.27 (-3.6% y/y). That left prices down 13.5% versus the $3.78 per gallon peak reached late in February. Much of the decline reflects less driving [...]

Sales at chain stores began the holiday sales season on a weak footing. The International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs reported that chain store sales fell 2.8% (+2.5% y/y) last week following a 2.6% rise during the [...]

The PMI gauges for manufacturing in Europe show a pick-up in the manufacturing sector for EMU. Manufacturing output has snaked up to a reading of 51.62 in November from 51.30 in October. Half of the eight member countries in the table [...]

The value of construction put-in-place gained 0.8% in October (5.3% y/y) following a 0.3% September slip. A 0.4% rise in building activity had been expected. The September figures, released for the first time, were contained in this [...]

Activity in the manufacturing sector continued to firm last month. The Composite Index of Manufacturing Sector Activity from the Institute for Supply Management advanced to 57.3 during November from an unrevised 56.4 October reading. [...]

Spain's current account surplus fell back sharply in September, perhaps signally that the end is coming for Spain's current account surpluses. Monthly export growth in September is unwinding about half of the surge in August. But the [...]

After an outsize decline in the previous week, seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims belied market expectations in the week ending November 23, falling 10,000 to 316,000. The market consensus had looked for a modest rebound [...]