Economy in Brief: 2019

One question that the central banks like the European Central Bank, the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan could ask is: what is the job of a central bank in a world where inflation has been tame and has been too tame for too long? [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that U.S. pending home sales rose 1.5% (3.9% y/y) during September following a 1.4% August increase. The index level of sales increased to 108.7, the highest level since December [...]

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index for October fell 0.3% (-8.7% y/y) to 125.9 after declines in three of the prior four months. A rise to 127.5 had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. It was the lowest [...]

In the week ended October 28, U.S. gasoline prices at the pump fell to $2.60 per gallon (-7.6% y/y) compared to $2.64 during the previous week. It was the lowest price in six weeks. Weaker seasonal demand accounted for most of last [...]

The Confederation of British Industry distributive trades retail survey in November continues to show weakness. Weakness is built into the very bones of this survey from the basic line items of the month to the look-ahead survey [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas reported in its Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey that the General Business Activity Index declined to -5.1 during October after falling to 1.5 in September. It remained down sharply from the [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago reported that its National Activity Index declined to -0.45 during September from 0.15 in August, revised from 0.10. It was the lowest index level since April. The three-month moving average, which [...]

On the whole, there is little changed in the IFO survey this month. As the headline reports, current conditions do weaken slightly month-to-month and expectations improve. The rankings that are done on a relatively short horizon to [...]