Economy in Brief: January 2018

Ireland reports late hence we have data for the EMU 18, not the 19, in the table below. If we rank each countries' sentiment index back to 1987 or to the start of its series on sentiment, we find only two, Slovakia and Greece lie [...]

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index increased 1.9% during January (12.4% y/y) to 125.4 following a 4.3% December decline to 123.1, revised from 122.1. A level of 123.2 had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast [...]

Retail gasoline prices rose to $2.61 per gallon (13.5% y/y) last week from $2.57 per gallon. It was the highest level since mid-September. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in gasoline pump [...]

Business in Texas is strengthening. The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas indicated in its Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey that the January General Business Activity Index increased to 33.4, its highest level in more than 12 years, [...]

The prevarication in the title is the acknowledgment that although sequentially from 12-month to six-months to three-month PPI inflation is accelerating in the EMU, the move more-simply watched in terms of its year-on-on-year pace is [...]

Individuals extended the recent buying trend and dipped into savings last month. Personal consumption expenditures increased 0.4% (4.6% y/y) during December following a 0.8% November rise, revised from 0.6%. A 0.4% improvement had [...]

Economic growth eased slightly at yearend as GDP posted a 2.6% advance (AR) during Q4'17, following roughly 3.0% growth in each of the prior two quarters. Growth picked up, however, from Q4-to-Q4 to 2.5%, its quickest advance in three [...]

While optimism about growth is moving ahead in leaps and bounds and many are concerned that monetary policy has overstayed its welcome on the side of accommodation, the monetary measures themselves show a much more muted view of this [...]