Economy in Brief: November 2002

Personal income (4.2% AR, YTD) rose as expected last month. It was the weakest gain in income since a slight decline in July. September's figure was unrevised Wage and salary disbursements were unchanged (3.0% AR, YTD) following 0.6% [...]

Real GDP last quarter was revised up more than Consensus expectations for a revision to 3.6% growth. Year to date growth in real GDP has been 3.4% (AR). The effect from inventory accumulation was raised notably, adding nearly one half [...]

Sales of existing single family homes rose much more than expected in October. Sales rose 6.1% from September which was revised up slightly. Sales through October were up 11.0% versus last December. During the first ten months of 2002 [...]

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) fell last month to its lowest level since last November. The reading pulled the three-month moving average of the CFNAI down to -0.55, a level consistent with roughly 2% growth in real [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance were lower than expected in the latest week at the lowest level in four months. Claims in the prior week were revised up slightly. The latest figure is for the survey period for November [...]

Housing starts fell more than expected last month and reversed September's spike. Starts fell 11.4% m/m. The run-up in September was lessened slightly. Single family starts were relatively firm, falling 7.0% from the previous month. [...]

Chain store sales fell sharply last week, according to the BTM-UBSW survey. Sales fell 1.2% and erased virtually all the gains in the prior two weeks. So far in November, sales were down 0.3% from the average sales level a month [...]

The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey index of net hiring rose for 1Q03 from the improved level of the prior six months. The not seasonally adjusted survey results indicated that 20% of firms plan to add employees in 1Q03 compared to [...]