Economy in Brief: 2015

Mario Draghi warned that the EMU could face another period in which its inflation gauge, the HICP, declined. In August the monthly HICP fell by 0.1%, its second drop in three months. Now the year-over-year HICP gain is just 0.1%. The [...]

The Consumer Price Index eased 0.1% during August (+0.2% y/y) and reversed the prior month's increase. It was the first shortfall since a 0.7% decline in January. Prices excluding food & energy notched 0.1% higher (1.8% y/y) for a [...]

Total business inventories edged up 0.1% in July (2.6% y/y) after a 0.7% advance in June, revised slightly from 0.8% reported initially. The resulting 3-month growth was 3.0% (AR), down from 5.0% in June. Total business sales also [...]

Gasoline prices at the pump continued to fall last week and averaged $2.38 per gallon (-30.3% y/y). That was down 6 cents from a week earlier and below $2.84 in mid-June. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal [...]

Overall industrial output decreased 0.4% during August after a 0.8% July gain, last month reported as 0.6%. A 0.2% decline had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Manufacturing sector production fell 0.5% (+1.3% [...]

The Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions remained negative during September, nearly the weakest reading since the recession. The latest figure of -14.67 compared to an unrevised -14.92 in August. These diffusion [...]

The ZEW expectations reading, the part of this report that gets the headline, fell to 12.1 in September from 25.0 in August, better than halving its value. ZEW expectations have dropped more than this in one month only about 8.5% of [...]

Overall retail sales including food services & drinking places during August increased 0.2% (1.6% y/y). A 0.3% rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. July's 0.7% gain and June's slight decline were little [...]