Economy in Brief

Pump prices for regular gasoline rose another four cents. Last week's gain to $3.87 per gallon pulled them up sixty-four cents (19.8%) during the last four weeks to their highest since last May. Reduced seasonal demand typically [...]

Housing starts fell last month by 1.1% (+34.7% y/y) to 698,000 from a revised 706,000 in January, initially reported as 699,000. Expectations had been for 697,000 starts for February. The performance amongst regions was mixed. Starts [...]

The rise in its currency, the real, and a slowdown in economic activity has prompted the Brazilian government to impose foreign exchange restrictions and capital controls. Brazil's current problems and its progress in meeting them can [...]

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo reported that its index of housing market activity remained at its highest level since June of 2007. The Composite Housing Market Index for March was unchanged at 28 following [...]

The EMU trade surplus has fallen off month to month but the recent surplus still is large. In EMU domestic demand is collapsing and with it import volume is contacting. Weaker imports have helped even weakening export trends to create [...]

The University of Michigan's Index of Consumer Sentiment for mid-March fell to 74.3 from 75.3 in February. The figure compared to expectations for improvement to 76.0. A decline in consumer expectations led this month's weakness with [...]

The weather can immensely impact factory output, and during the last few months that was notably true. Industrial production was unchanged last month (4.0% y/y) following a revised 0.4% January rise, initially reported as no change. [...]

The chart offers clear snap shot of how much UK PPI inflation has oscillated up and down since the financial crisis/recession. But it mostly has been too high UK PPI inflation is running at 4.1% Yr/Yr. Core inflation is lower 3% [...]