Economy in Brief: January 2011

Kaput is what kaput does - German retail sales are off by 0.3% in nominal terms in December and by the same proportion in real terms in December. In both real and nominal terms German retail sales are getting progressively weaker from [...]

Rising food and oil prices and the large proportion of young people in the populations of Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen are inciting the citizens of these countries, finally, to revolt against long standing grievances. Data on these [...]

Intuit compiles data covering small business employment and the figures indicate that jobs have been improving with the economic recovery. The 0.3% m/m gain in the January Employment Index added to 0.4% increases during each of the [...]

Personal income turned the corner last year into positive territory. For the full year, the pickup in income growth to 3.0% from -1.7% reflected positive growth in hourly earnings, a lessened decline in employment and growth in [...]

Consumer sentiment bounced back late this month from some mid-month apprehension. As a result, the full-month reading just slipped from December. The January reading of consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan dipped just [...]

The employment cost index for private industry workers held at a 0.4% increase in Q4 for total compensation. However, the four-quarter gain improved moderately to 2.0%, its highest in two years. Private sector wages & salaries [...]

The GfK measure of UK consumer confidence for January plunged by 8 points marking its largest single-month drop since 1994. Confidence now sits at the 27the percentile of its 10Yr range and is only at the 18th percentile of the 10Yr [...]

Real GDP increased 3.2% (SAAR) last quarter. Though the gain fell short of Consensus expectations for a 3.6% increase, it was the strongest since Q1 2010. For the full year, real GDP rose a moderate 2.9% and recouped the 2.6% lost [...]