Economy in Brief

US retail sales fell 0.3% in January, about as expected due to a 3.3% (+5.6% y/y) decline in spending on motor vehicles. The 1.1% rise in December sales was little revised. Sales excluding motor vehicles rose 0.6% following an [...]

US retail sales fell 0.3% in January, about as expected due to a 3.3% (+5.6% y/y) decline in spending on motor vehicles. The 1.1% rise in December sales was little revised. Sales excluding motor vehicles rose 0.6% following an [...]

Eurostat's "Flash" GDP estimate for Q4/2003 shows modest growth fairly steady with Q3. The Euro-zone 12 gained 0.3%, a bit slower than Q3's 0.4%, while strength in the UK helped raise the EU15* by 0.4%, the same as in Q3. Four-quarter [...]

The U.S. foreign trade deficit deepened sharply in December to $42.5. November's deficit was revised slightly deeper to $38.4B. Consensus expectations had been for a deficit of $39.5B. For 2003, the deficit of $489.4B by far set the [...]

Retail sales fell 0.3% last month versus the Consensus expectation for a 0.1% gain. The previously reported 0.5% rise in December sales was revised down to a 0.2% increase. Motor vehicle dealers' sales fell 3.9% m/m as unit sales of [...]

The January Small Business Optimism Index published by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) dipped 1.0% m/m but remained near a record level at 105.8. The m/m decline reflected modest declines in the percent of small [...]

Britain's merchandise trade deficit improved by 197 million pounds in December but, for the year as a whole, the deficit was 46,385 million pounds which is only slightly lower than the record deficit of 46,630 million pounds in 2002. [...]

The Index of Leading Indicators for the Major Seven OECD Countries finished 2003 with another firm gain. The 0.7% (5.9% y/y) rise in December was the ninth consecutive month of strength. Six-month growth in the leading index rose to [...]