Economy in Brief

The German CPI is up by 0.3% in April. Headline German CPI inflation rose by 0.2%. Core CPI inflation rose by 0.3%. Broadly, these measures of German inflation continue to accelerate. Core inflation reached it low point in 2009 began [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that overall mortgage applications rose 8.2% last week, the second week of strong gain. Applications to purchase a home rose 6.7% w/w but remained down by one-quarter from last year. During [...]

Higher oil prices acted to deepen the U.S. trade deficit to its widest since last June. The foreign trade deficit increased in March to $48.2B versus $45.4B in February, revised from $45.8B reported initially. Expectations had been [...]

Italy and France continue to see their IP trends go more or less the same way as the end game of the economic recovery plays out. Recovery continues but with a differing flavor in the two countries. It is normal for economic recovery, [...]

China's total trade surplus rose $4.7 billion from $14.2 billion in March to $18.9 billion in April. Although exports declined by $4.1 billion in April, imports declined even more--by $8.8 billion. The seasonally adjusted trade [...]

Pricing strength amongst internationally traded U.S. products has been pronounced this year and last. Overall U.S. import prices last month jumped another 2.2% after a little-revised 2.6% March increase. The gain was stronger than [...]

Earlier strength in chain store sales stalled recently. Store sales were unchanged last week after a 0.8% slip at the end of April. The stall follows great strength earlier in April and during March. During the last ten years there [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business indicated that its index of small business optimism slipped to 91.2 in April from an unrevised 91.9 in March. The latest was the lowest level since September. Deterioration amongst the [...]