Economy in Brief: 2020

The Consumer Price Index increased 0.2% (2.3% y/y) during December following a 0.3% November rise and a 0.4% October gain. A 0.3% increase had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The CPI excluding food & energy [...]

Retail gasoline prices inched down to $2.57 per gallon (14.4% y/y) in the week ended January 13 from $2.58 per gallon in the previous week. Last week's price equaled the average for all of 2019. Typically, gasoline prices weaken this [...]

The abrupt drop in average hourly earnings in December to a 3% gain, 50 basis points below the run-rate of the past year, is as much of a surprise as it is a puzzle. How can the wage data show a one-month plunge in earnings growth [...]

The abrupt drop in average hourly earnings in December to a 3% gain, 50 basis points below the run-rate of the past year, is as much of a surprise as it is a puzzle. How can the wage data show a one-month plunge in earnings growth [...]

The U.S. Treasury Department reported that the federal government ran a $13.27 billion budget deficit during December compared to a $13.54 billion deficit twelve months earlier. A $14.3 billion deficit had been expected in the Action [...]

U.K. manufacturing industrial production dropped by a sharp 1.7% in November. It was the largest drop since April when manufacturing output fell by an outsized 4.2%. On data back to January 2015, this is the second largest monthly [...]

The Industrial Materials Price Index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research (FIBER) increased 1.7% during the four weeks ended Friday and 3.9% over the last three months. The price index increased 0.8% [...]