Economy in Brief

In April exports in the European Monetary Union (EMU) fell by 0.8% after rising by 2.6% in March. Also in April imports rose by 0.5% after falling by 1.2% in March. The trends are somewhat contrary to the monthly developments. Exports [...]

Improvement in the housing market is gaining momentum. The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo improved greatly to 52 in June from an unrevised May reading of 44. Expectations were [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York indicated that its Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions rose to 7.84 this month from an unrevised -1.43 in May. The latest figure exceeded Consensus expectations for 0.8. That, [...]

French retail sales continue to be weak. In May retail sales volumes fell by 0.2% month-to-month with a rise of 5.1% in food sales blunting a drop of 2.8% in nonfood sales. Nonfood sales have fallen for four months in a row. The [...]

The University of Michigan's Index of Consumer Sentiment for mid-June fell to 82.7 (13.0% y/y) from an unrevised 84.5 in May. The figure disappointed the consensus forecast for stability at 84.3. During the last ten years, there has [...]

Activity in the factory sector continues on a weak footing. Industrial production ticked up just 0.1% during May following a 0.5% April decline, earlier reported as -0.6%. A 0.2% rise had been expected in the Action Economics survey. [...]

The deflation of wholesale prices ended last month. The producer price index for finished goods recovered 0.5% in May (1.8% y/y) following an unrevised 0.7% April drop. The increase exceeded consensus expectations for a 0.1% uptick. [...]

Inflation in the Eurozone rose by only 0.2% in May. Over three months the annual rate of inflation is only a 0.1% there was a steady deceleration in the growth rate of inflation from 12 months to six months to three months. Meanwhile, [...]