Economy in Brief: March 2017

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Market Volume Index slipped 0.8% last week (-12.4% y/y) following a 2.7% decline during the week prior. Purchase applications increased 1.2% (4.2% y/y) after a 2.1% [...]

German debt level fell outright in Q4 2016 as the ratio of federal debt-to-GDP also fell. Germany has the lowest ratio of debt-to-GDP among the original EMU members with the exception of Luxembourg, a small country that is a financial [...]

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index for March strengthened 8.2% (30.7% y/y) to 125.6, the highest level since December 2000. February's level was revised higher to 116.1 from 114.8. The Action Economics Forecast Survey [...]

Regular gasoline prices held steady at $2.32 per gallon last week (12.1% y/y) for the third straight week. Prices remained lower than the 2014 high of $3.71 per gallon. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas indicated in its Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey that the General Business Activity Index eased during March, but remained near the highest level of the economic expansion. The production reading [...]

The National Association for Business Economics expects 2.5% real U.S. economic growth in 2018 compared to 2.3% forecast for 2017. The gains follow 1.6% growth in 2016 and a 2015 advance of 2.6%. Quarterly GDP growth is expected to [...]

EMU nominal money supply growth is slightly higher over three months, but credit growth in the EMU is slower. Real balances (inflation adjusted month and credit) show slow and slowing money and credit growth with credit growth [...]

The PMI rankings for the manufacturing and service sector PMIs in the EMU are suddenly off the chart. The queue rankings mark most of this month's readings as this strong or stronger only about 1.6% of the time (since January 2012); [...]