Economy in Brief

With a 7% decline in Japanese exports and a 1% rise in imports, Japan’s trade surplus declined from 1,050.7 billion yen in November to 657.3 billion yen in December, a greater than expected decline. The strengthening yen since early [...]

The trade weighted value of the US dollar has fallen sharply during the last year, down 12.4% since year ago levels. In 2003 alone the dollar's value has shed 2.4%. The Euro has risen almost 20% against the US dollar during the last [...]

Volatile energy prices have dominated the inflation picture around the world but in Europe, core price inflation has been firm. Annual gains in prices less food and energy ran in excess of 2% during 2002, double the growth during 1999 [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose about as expected last week. Claims rose 5.0% from the prior week's level which was revised slightly higher. Last week's figure was for the January survey period for nonfarm payrolls. [...]

Chain store sales rose the same slight 0.3% as during the week prior according to the BTM-UBSW survey. Sales so far in January were up 2.1% from the December average. That likely represents a material gain in real terms due to the [...]

The ZEW (Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung) financial market survey of institutional investors and analysts in Germany showed an increase in the share of respondents who have a positive view of the economic outlook over the [...]

Housing starts surged much more than expected last month on the strength of gains in both single and multi family activity. November starts were revised up. For the full year, starts in 2002 were at the highest level since 1985. [...]

The U.S. foreign trade deficit deepened much more than expected in November. October's deficit was little revised. Consensus expectations had been for a November deficit of $36.1B. The end of the West Coast dock workers strike [...]