Economy in Brief

There's a recovery underway in the factory sector, but it's losing steam. Shipments of manufactured goods rose 0.8% in November (5.9% y/y) after a 0.4% October increase, but the magnitude of that recovery is misleading. Higher oil [...]

Shopping is what consumers do, especially during the holidays. Reflecting that inclination, sales at chain stores increased another 0.4% last week to a record high. The increase followed three weeks of strong increase. However, since [...]

Reports of improvement in economies worldwide have lent strength to energy prices. Last week, the pump price for regular gasoline rose another two cents to $3.07 per gallon following the prior week's seven cent rise. Prices were the [...]

Moderate weather may have played a part in its increase. Nevertheless, the value of construction put-in-place rose 0.4% during November following an unrevised 0.7% October gain. The latest figure essentially matched Consensus [...]

The IMF's Fiscal Monitor data, which were recently added to the IFS and IFSANN databases, provide the best available means of comparing fiscal developments and the IMF's projections of such developments for most countries. The Fiscal [...]

The Composite Index from the Institute for Supply Management increased just moderately last month to 57.0 from 56.6 during November. A slightly lesser gain to 56.8 had been expected by the Bloomberg Survey. Despite the modest m/m [...]

EMU PMIs are in a clear revival despite concerns about austerity in 2011 and market-related financing concerns. This week the Zone's access to market credit is tested as several issuers hit the finical trough for sustenance. Against [...]

As 2011 begins, the Baltic nation of Estonia will join the Euro Area, becoming the 17th country to use the euro currency. The last country to adopt the currency was Slovakia at the beginning of 2009. This event marks the retirement of [...]