Economy in Brief

Ireland continues to recover from the recession of 2008. According to data released today, GDP in Ireland rose a modest 0.18% in the third quarter from the second quarter and was 0.79% above GDP of a year ago. Ever since the third [...]

The chart on Italian export and import growth and its trade balance tells volumes about how austerity works. In 2011 Italian imports began to fall behind Italian export growth as domestic growth slowed. Of course, the whole of the [...]

Petroleum prices continue under pressure. The pump price for a gallon of regular gasoline fell another ten cents last week (+0.8% y/y) to $3.25 per gallon. Since their September peak prices have fallen sixty three cents per gallon. [...]

Recent improvement in the housing market won't let up. The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo increased this month to 47 from a downwardly revised 45 in November. For all of 2012, [...]

The U.S. current account deficit lessened last quarter to $107.5B from $118.1B in Q2. The easing left the deficit to GDP ratio at 2.7%, its least in roughly three years. Total exports gained 0.2% (1.7% y/y) although goods exports [...]

German manufacturing is beginning to feel the effects of the slowdown in the rest of the Euro Area. Data released today and shown in Haver's GERMANY database show that employment in the manufacturing industry dropped in October to [...]

The National Association for Business Economics held the expectation for real GDP growth next year at 2.1%, the same as in October's survey. However, these are lowered figures versus 2.7% in the May tally. That follows an unrevised [...]