Economy in Brief: May 2019

The labor market remains historically quite robust. Initial claims for unemployment insurance edged up 3,000 to 215,000 in week ended May 25, but remain around the lowest level in nearly six decades. The latest reading was in line [...]

Japan's trade deficit stays in place for the second month in a row although the deficit shrinks to 111 billion yen in April from 154 billion yen in March. Japan's average deficit measured over 12 months, six months and three months [...]

Since 2013, Italian inflation has consistently been lower than German inflation The table and chart chronicle some interesting circumstances for Italy. The chart shows that (as they say) ‘believe it or not!' Italian inflation has [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Index declined 3.3% (+15.6% y/y) during the week ending May 24 and reversed the prior week's increase. The decline reflected a 6.0% drop (+29.3% y/y) in [...]

Retail gasoline prices fell three cents last week to $2.82 per gallon (-4.7% y/y), the third consecutive weekly decline. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in gasoline pump prices. The seasonally- [...]

BEA released on May 16 estimates of real personal income by state and metro area for 2017. The considerably lag reflects the methodology BEA uses to compute this data. First, estimates are made of consumer spending at these levels, [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas reported in its Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey that the General Business Activity Index declined to -5.3 in May from 2.0 in April. This is the third consecutive monthly decline and the lowest [...]

The EU Commission index rose to 105.1 in May, a rise that brings it up still short of its March reading; this is its first increase after 15 straight months of declines. There were improvements in the readings for each of the largest [...]