Economy in Brief: 2017

The chart shows that year-on-year growth rates for money and credit flows in the EMU have stabilized at less-than-strong growth rates. Both have steadied over the past year with money growth at a pace of about 5% and credit growth at [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending home sales held steady (-3.5% y/y) during September at an index level of 106.0 (2001=100). This followed a revised 2.8% August decline, initially reported as -2.6%. [...]

Initial unemployment insurance applications rose to 233,000 (-9.5% y/y) during the week ended October 21 following a decline to 223,000 in the prior week, revised from 222,000. The figure remained near its 1973 low. The Labor [...]

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) index of U.S. house prices rose 6.6% y/y during August, roughly the same as during the last three months. This compared to a peak 7.1% y/y gain in April. During the last three months, prices [...]

Sales of new single-family homes increased 18.9% (17.0% y/y) during September to 667,000 (AR) from 561,000 in August, revised from 560,000. September sales were at the highest level since October 2007. Expectations in the Action [...]

Back to normal? The German economy is, in some sense, back to normal even as it does excessively well! From mid-2015 through early-2017, the highest diffusion reading has been in wholesaling. But in March 2017, the raw diffusion score [...]

New orders for durable goods increased 2.2% during September (8.3% y/y) following an unrevised 2.0% August gain. A 1.2% increase in orders had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The rise in orders reflected a 5.1% [...]

The EMU composite index fell back to 55.9 in October from 56.7 in September. The reading is still strong and it's the sixth highest composite score for the EMU since January 2012. The reading, the result of a manufacturing gauge that [...]