Economy in Brief: 2014

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that its Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions declined to 6.17 during October, reversing all of this year's gains. It fell short of expectations for 20.9 in the Action [...]

Retail and food service sales fell 0.3% during September (+4.3% y/y) following an unrevised 0.6% August gain. A 0.1% slip had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Sales were led lower by a 0.8% drop (+9.5% y/y) in [...]

Despite the weaknesses in Germany's economic data and its just-released leading economic index, German inflation does not seem to be under as much downward pressure in September. The sequential growth rates for Germany's harmonized [...]

Petroleum prices continue to move lower. The cost of a gallon of regular gasoline fell sharply last week to $3.21 (-4.4% y/y) from $3.30, its least expensive since November 2013. Additional weakness seemed possible as the N.Y. spot [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business reported that its Small Business Optimism Index for September fell to 95.3 following an unrevised improvement to 96.1 during August. Despite the decline, the latest level remained near [...]

The ZEW current index, which had been so resilient, fell sharply in October, dropping to 3.2 from 25.4 in September. The expectations index fell into negative territory for the first time since November 2012. The current index is [...]

The best way to evaluate the relative strength or weakness of a currency is to assess it using purchasing power parity (PPP). According to this method, we take the euro area and its measure of its price level and compare it to another [...]

Import prices fell 0.5% (-0.9% y/y) during September, after a 0.6% August drop, earlier reported as -0.9%. The decline matched expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. A 2.0% fall (-6.6% y/y) in petroleum prices led the [...]