Economy in Brief

The Weekly Leading Index of the US economy from the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) edged up in the latest week but remained off the series' high reached roughly one month ago. The six month growth rate of 3.4% also declined [...]

The Weekly Leading Index of the US economy from the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) edged up in the latest week but remained off the series' high reached roughly one month ago. The six month growth rate of 3.4% also declined [...]

GDP growth in the UK edged lower in Q1 to 0.6% from 0.7% in Q4. We indicated this possibility yesterday in discussing retail sales, which fell outright in March. The four-quarter performance thus stood at 2.8%, the slowest since Q4 [...]

Employment in Taiwan increased by 2,000 in March, continuing a more moderate uptrend that emerged at the turn of the year; February saw a 17,000 rise and January 9,000. Most notably, manufacturing employment has declined the last two [...]

The National Association of Home Builders' (NAHB) Composite Housing Market Index fell to 67 in April versus an upwardly revised 70 in March. The index has fallen in three out of last four months. All of the index components fell from [...]

The JoC-ECRI (Journal of Commerce-Economic Cycle Research Institute) index of industrial commodity prices has moved somewhat lower during the last few weeks, and that decline highlights the loss of forward momentum developed during [...]

The JoC-ECRI (Journal of Commerce-Economic Cycle Research Institute) index of industrial commodity prices has moved somewhat lower during the last few weeks, and that decline highlights the loss of forward momentum developed during [...]

Retail sales in the UK are flagging, according to the most recent couple of months' data from the Office of National Statistics. In March, sales values rose 0.2% from February, the same size gain as for February from January. These [...]