Economy in Brief: March 2017

Inflation, once galloping headlong toward another case of hyper-Armageddon and toward another I-told-you-so central bank policy screw-up, has suddenly evaporated. Just one month ago German officials were all but howling at the moon to [...]

The Chicago Purchasing Managers Business Barometer Index improved to 57.7 in March after strengthening to 57.4 in February. The latest figure was the highest since January 2015. The March reading exceeded expectations for 56.8 in the [...]

Personal income increased 0.4% last month (4.6% y/y) following a 0.5% January rise, revised from 0.4%. The gain matched expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The increase raised y/y growth to 4.6%, its best since May [...]

Initial jobless insurance applications fell to 258,000 (-3.1% y/y) during the week ended March 25 from 261,000 during the prior week, revised from 258,000. Expectations had been for 247,000 claims in the Action Economics Forecast [...]

Economic growth during Q4'16 was revised up. Gross domestic product advanced 2.1% following two earlier estimates of 1.9% growth. During all of last year, growth decelerated to 1.6% from 2.6% in 2015. The Q4 figure compared to [...]

The EU Commission indexes for March show an advance for the EU as a whole and a small 0.1% drop for the EMU. The EMU gauge has risen by 0.1% in each of the two prior months. The level of the EU-wide gauge has an 81st percentile [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending home sales increased 5.5% in February to an index level of 112.3, the highest point since April 2016. The NAR suggested that warm temperatures helped lift sales. The [...]

Italian business and consumer confidence moved higher in March. Business confidence is on a four-month string of month-to-month improvements. Consumer confidence is making a rebound after falling in both January and February. Business [...]