Economy in Brief: March 2004

Durable goods orders rose 2.5% last month and recovered from a downwardly revised 2.7% decline in January. Consensus expectations had been for a 1.5% rise in February orders. Non-defense capital goods orders rose 2.9% but the advance [...]

The economic news announced today, relating to consumer spending and confidence in France, Italy and the Netherlands, adds fuel to the growing doubts about this year's growth prospects for the Euro Zone. Consumer spending has yet to [...]

Chain store sales added 0.2% last week to the 0.5% gain the prior period, according to the ICSC-UBS survey. Sales so far in March are 0.3% ahead of the February average. The ICSC-UBS retail chain-store sales index is constructed using [...]

The rental and property markets in Hong Kong are beginning to show signs of revival. Prices in these markets had reached peaks in October, 1997 and had declined steeply until the past few months. The index of rental prices, which had [...]

Prices for industrial materials have surged 13.4% since yearend, as measured by the JoC-ECRI index. Higher prices for metals have led the gain with a 15.5% jump that reflects a 27.5% jump in steel scrap prices and a 32.2% rise in [...]

International trade in Italy has shifted back into deficit in recent months after maintaining a surplus for nearly all of 2001 and 2002. Declines in exports are responsible, while imports have been sluggish. Further, the weakening of [...]

The Weekly Leading Index of the US economy published by the Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI) moved higher through early March. The move was accompanied by an uptick in ECRI's Future Inflation Gauge but that followed a 7.1% [...]

Eurostat today published hourly labor cost data for the Euro-Zone for Q4 2003. Total labor costs are seen to have moderated last year after a pick-up in 2001 and 2002. This pattern was exhibited in both wage costs and "other" costs, [...]