Economy in Brief: 2012

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 [...]

New orders for durable goods jumped another 4.2% last month following an unrevised 1.6% June increase. Expectations had been for a 1.5% July rise. Strength continued to center in the transportation sector where orders jumped 14.1% [...]