Economy in Brief: August 2012

France’s Insee business climate reading for July was revised to 89 from 90 making the ‘repeat’ initial reading of 90 into a gain in August. The index is still weak at the 36.8th percentile of its high/low range and yet it is lower [...]

Last quarter's real GDP growth was revised up to an expected 1.7% annual rate following the advance estimate of 1.5% growth. The revision reflected offsetting changes to foreign trade and inventories. Domestic demand growth of 1.6% [...]

Consumers' confidence about the future has turned sour. In fact, lower expectations for the next six months helped push the Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index for August down by 7.3% m/m to 60.6 from 65.4 in July, initially [...]

The pump price of regular gasoline rose another four cents last week to $3.78 per gallon, the highest level since early May. Haver Analytics' seasonally-adjusted price for regular rose six cents w/w to $3.62 per gallon. This [...]

The recovery in housing markets continues to bolster prices. The seasonally adjusted Case-Shiller 20-City Home Price Index rose 0.9% (0.5% y/y) during June. That added to its little revised 1.0% May increase. The gain in prices [...]

The German business climate weakened again in August to 102.3 (2005=100) from 103.2 in July. It was for the fourth successive month of decline, but the decline was more moderate, 0.9%, compared with the 1.9%, 1.5% and 2.7% declines of [...]

Italy’s current account is finally adjusting. No longer is it simply stuck in the ‘red zone.’ Since December 2004 Italy has had only four months in which its current account has not been in deficit. In June Italy’s account was at zero [...]

The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing and Finance Agency (FHFA) rose 0.7% during June following a 0.6% May increase, last month reported as 0.8%. It was the fifth consecutive monthly gain. The 3.6% y/y increase was its [...]