Economy in Brief: 2017

Neither German exports nor imports are surging, but exports have a very strong one-month gain in August after a very mild rise in July. Year-on-year exports have decelerated compared to the pace of growth in the same month of one year [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business reported that its Small Business Optimism Index declined to 103.0 during September following little change during August. In was the lowest level of confidence since November, but [...]

Germany's industrial production rebounded strongly, gaining 2.6% m/m in August after falling in each of the previous two months. Capital goods output was especially strong, rising by 4.8% in August after falling for two straight [...]

Consumer credit outstanding grew $13.07 billion (5.5% y/y) during August following a $17.71 billion July increase, revised from $18.49 billion. A $15.5 billion August increase had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. [...]

The government's jobs numbers will be tough to read for a time as the economy deals with hurricane effects. Nonfarm payrolls declined 33,000 (+1.2% y/y) during September following a 169,000 August increase and a 138,000 July gain. [...]

The overview Although German orders are plagued by volatility and both headline and total orders fell in July, the surge in August orders of 3.6% based on strong domestic-sourced and foreign-sourced demand confirms that order trends [...]

Inventories at the wholesale level rose 0.9% m/m (4.5% y/y) in August following unrevised 0.6% m/m increases in both July and June. Over the past three months, inventories are up at a 9.0% annual rate, up from 7.5% in July. Durable [...]

The government's jobs numbers will be tough to read for a time as the economy deals with hurricane effects. Nonfarm payrolls declined 33,000 (+1.2% y/y) during September following a 169,000 August increase and a 138,000 July gain. [...]