Economy in Brief

Italy’s retail sales stay on a low-growth path. Italy’s retail sales have slowed and are staying at that slower pace. Over the past year, at 0.6%, retail sales have slowed from their previous year’s pace of 1.1%. On sequential growth [...]

The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)-UBS reported that chain store sales last week retraced all of the prior week's rise with a 1.5% decline. That drop followed the 1.0% gain in the prior week but nevertheless was the [...]

The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)-UBS reported that chain store sales last week retraced all of the prior week's rise with a 1.5% decline. That drop followed the 1.0% gain in the prior week but nevertheless was the [...]

The threat to growth in Europe has been named in the past weekend’s G-7 meeting as primarily due to the strong Euro. The Euro remains a threat to growth though Germany’s finance minister was quite blasé about it in comparison to [...]

While China's balance of trade on goods has risen steadily, it has been the rise in exports that has captured most attention. Now attention is beginning to the paid to the deceleration in imports that has begun to take place in the [...]

Through the second quarter of this year, delinquent payments on loans at commercial banks in the U.S. has soared to the highest level since 2004. The rate on residential loans is up to the highest since the recession year 2001. The [...]

Through the second quarter of this year, delinquent payments on loans at commercial banks in the U.S. has soared to the highest level since 2004. The rate on residential loans is up to the highest since the recession year 2001. The [...]

Overall Q3 GDP growth in the UK appears to make for boring reading, at 0.8% Qtr/Qtr for a fourth consecutive time and a sixth time out of the last seven quarters. But with the upheaval in world financial markets coming to a head right [...]