Economy in Brief: March 2014

Chicago Purchasing Managers indicated that their March index of General Business Conditions fell to 55.9 from an unrevised 59.8 in February. The figure was the lowest since August and missed expectations for 60.0, according to the [...]

German retail sales are engaged in an unexpected pick up. Sales are up strongly for the two consecutive months. Sequential growth rates show clear acceleration in the retail sales spending patterns culminating in a 6.1% growth rate [...]

The European Union continues to make smart gains in March with its overall index of sentiment up by 1.2 percentage points. For the broader EU, the overall sentiment index has risen to 105.3 in March from 105 in February. EU industrial [...]

Personal consumption expenditures increased 0.3% (3.0% y/y) during February after a 0.2% January gain, revised from 0.1%. A 0.2% rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Clothing purchases led the improvement [...]

New data available through February 2014 point to the continuing sluggishness in money growth and outright weakness in credit growth in the European Monetary Union. Mario Draghi, European Central Bank President, must wonder sometimes [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending sales of single-family homes moved 0.8% lower during February, the eighth strait monthly decline. The 0.2% January drop was revised from a 0.1% uptick reported last [...]

Initial claims fell sharply to 311,000 during the week ended March 22 from a little-revised 321,000 in the prior week. It was the lowest level since the last week of November. Expectations had been for 324,000 claims in the Action [...]

Real GDP growth for Q4'13 was revised slightly higher to 2.6% (2.6% y/y) from 2.4% estimated last month. The Department of Commerce, in this third estimate, indicated that growth remained down sharply from 4.1% in the third quarter. [...]