Economy in Brief: March 2019

Sales of light vehicles decreased 0.8% (-2.6% year-on-year) in February to 16.57 million units at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR). This is the weakest vehicle sales since February 2015. An 8.1% drop in auto sales (-11.6% y/y) [...]

The ISM manufacturing index unexpectedly declined to 54.2 in February, the weakest reading since November 2016. The Action Economics Forecast Survey anticipated an increase to 56.0. Over the past ten years, there has been a 62% [...]

Interestingly only half of the BRICS show manufacturing sectors that are "sinking like a brick". China and Russia have sectors whose indices are very near the 50 level, a level that marks manufacturing stagnation. They each have queue [...]

As a result of the government shutdown the Bureau of Economic Analysis released the delayed December personal income, personal consumption and related prices measures as well as the January personal income data, without outlays and [...]