Economy in Brief: May 2011

German retail sales have been through a bit of a recovery boom and bust phase and unfortunately they are now digging out of a ‘bust phase’ and not doing so with much vigor. Just last week the Bundesbank said that the German economy [...]

New Zealand businessmen have recovered most of the confidence they lost in March as a result of the February Earthquake in Christ Church. According to the National Bank of New Zealand's business confidence survey, the optimists on the [...]

Concern about future business conditions is the big worry on consumers' minds this month. The Conference Board reported that its May consumer confidence index fell 7.9% from April to 60.8, the lowest level since November. The latest [...]

Home prices have been seesawing, giving back all of the support created by last year's home-buyer tax credit. The seasonally adjusted Case-Shiller 20-City Home Price Index fell 0.2% m/m in March after an unrevised 0.2% February drop. [...]

The EU regional index rose in May but the EMU index fell The table above carries the EU at the top of the table and reports the CHANGE in the EMU index in the bottom section along with country detail. In the not so merry, merry month [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending sales of existing single-family homes fell 11.6% last month after a 3.5% March gain, that was initially reported as 5.1%. Sales were at the lowest level since September. [...]

Individuals continue to do their part in supporting the economic recovery. It's just that higher prices are eroding the effort.Personal consumption expenditures gained 0.4% last month, after a 0.5% March rise, but that increase was [...]

Initial claims for jobless insurance rebounded to 424,000 from 414,000 during the week earlier, revised from 409,000. The latest figure was higher than Consensus expectations for 400,000 claims. The four-week moving average of claims [...]