Economy in Brief

The balance of opinion on current economic conditions in Germany of the 295 Institutional investors and financial analysts responding to the ZEW financial market survey in May rose from 87.1% in April to 91.5%, the highest balance on [...]

Last week, the pump price for regular gasoline slipped back to $3.96 per gallon but remained near the highest level since July, 2008. Typically, however, pump prices start rising this time of year in anticipation of increased seasonal [...]

Overall, U.S. industrial production was unchanged during April after a revised 0.8% March jump, initially reported as 0.9%. The latest figure was weaker than Consensus expectations for a 0.4% gain according to Action Economics. More [...]

There's still no forward momentum behind housing sector activity. Housing starts fell 10.6% to 523,000 units last month after a revised 12.9% March gain to 585,000, initially reported as 549,000. The latest figure was the lowest in [...]

The EMU trade picture is somewhat unclear as both exports and imports accelerate over shorter horizons from three-months to six-months to twelve-months but each flow also sees a decline in the progression of the Yr/Yr growth rate. One [...]

More statistical evidence of the impact of the March earthquake, tsunami and subsequent nuclear meltdown in Japan is beginning to be released. Some indication of the effect on production has already come to the fore. Industrial [...]

The National Association for Business Economics reported a downward revision to its latest growth forecast. For this year, real GDP growth should average 2.8%, versus 3.3% expected three months ago. For next year, growth is expected [...]

The National Association of Home Builders reported that its May index of housing market activity held steady at 16 versus an unrevised 16 in April. Though the latest figure remained above the all-time low of 8 reached in January of [...]