Economy in Brief

Japan's service sector (Tertiary index) dipped in August as we remain unclear if the herky-jerky recovery in services is still in force or not. The services sector is looking like it is in recovery and its Yr/Yr rise is respectably [...]

The small island of Singapore--an area of some 263 square miles and a population of just over 5 million people--has one of the highest per capita GDPs in Asia. In 2009, per capita GDP was $36,537. Foreign trade is the source of much [...]

Is this the beginning of a real turnaround in housing? Time will tell if low interest rates are finally having an effect. But for this month, the National Association of Home Builders reported that their index of housing market [...]

Momentum previously evident in industrial output growth has been lost. That's again the message from the report on production which fell last month. The decline compared to an expected 0.2% gain, and reversed an unrevised 0.2% August [...]

The U.S. Government's budget deficit decreased in fiscal year 2010, ended September 30, to $1.294 trillion from $1.417 trillion in FY09, according to the annual release of fiscal year budget results published today by the U.S. [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that its October Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions improved to 15.73 which was the highest level since June. The figure suggests positive growth in factory sector [...]

Businesses continued to add inventories in August, and the inventory/sales ratio made it to 1.27, the highest since November 2009. Total stocks were up 0.6% in August, following July's 1.1% gain. This sum of manufacturers, wholesalers [...]

Consumer sentiment is stuck: for a fourth consecutive month, the University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment has hovered within a range of 1.1 points and eased just slightly in the latest, mid-October reading to 67.9 from 68.2 [...]