Economy in Brief: October 2018

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas indicated in its Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey that the General Business Activity Index rose to 29.4 during October and recovered most of its September decline. Nevertheless, the index has moved [...]

Even Japan’s three-month growth rate series shows exceptionally choppy retail sales performance (see Chart). Year-over-year sales creep higher. Six-month trends show robust gains. The truth of trend lies buried somewhere in these very [...]

Personal income rose 0.2% (4.4% y/y) during September following a 0.4% August increase, revised from 0.3%. A 0.4% gain was expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Leading last month's weaker rise was proprietors' income [...]

No, science fiction has not come to economics. The earth is not standing still; it just seems so to some... Over the last four months back to August, German economic climate has hardly changed. Confidence in Italy is stuck for the [...]

Real gross domestic product increased 3.5% (AR, 3.0% y/y) during Q3'18 following a 4.2% rise in the second quarter. A 3.3% advance had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Supporting economic growth last quarter was [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City reported that its index of regional manufacturing sector business activity declined to 8 in October, the lowest level since December 2016. It remained down from the May high of 29. The ISM- [...]

The German IFO reading for October shows that the climate reading steps back to 18.7 from September's 21.3. The index has a standing at its 89.9 percentile at the border of the top 10% in its queue of historic readings. Clearly, [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending home sales increased 0.5% in September (-1.0% y/y) following a little-revised 1.9% fall during August. The index level rose to 104.6 in September (2001=100) compared to [...]