Economy in Brief: February 2013

Moody's has downgraded the UK economy and maybe it is because despite the governments adherence to austerity recovery still won't start. Markets do not seem to care much about what Moody's thinks. After the credit-rating agencies' [...]

During January, sales of new homes jumped 15.6% (28.9% y/y) to 437,000 (AR). That compared to 378,000 sales during December, revised from 369,000. Consensus expectations had been for sales of 380,000. Sales increased throughout the [...]

The recent upturn in the price of gasoline is continuing. The pump price for a gallon of regular gasoline increased another three cents last week to $3.78 per gallon (1.7% y/y). Prices have risen 53 cents in just the last eight weeks. [...]

Two factors can raise prices: Increased demand and/or lessened supply. Both were in place last year in the housing market. (See the Feb. 21st report on Haver.com) The seasonally adjusted Case-Shiller 20 City Home Price Index rose 6.9% [...]

The German IFO index has jumped sharply in February. From a diffusion value level of 1.3 in January the sector index has jumped to 7.3 in February. The overall Climate index, plotted in the chart, has made its third the strongest [...]

Following a 2.0% rise this year, real growth in the U.S. economy is expected to improve to 2.8% in 2014. These are the projections for average real GDP growth by the members of the National Association for Business Economics. [...]

The Chicago Federal Reserve reported that its National Activity Index (CFNAI) for January fell to -0.32 from upwardly revised readings of 0.25 and 0.96 in December and November. Despite January weakening, the revisions caused the [...]

The index of Leading Economic indicators, published by the Conference Board, increased 0.2% (2.1% y/y) during January following an unrevised 0.5% December increase. Sixty percent of the component series had a positive influence on the [...]