Economy in Brief: 2016

The EU Commission indices for the EU and EMU fell hard in August. Their slippages have been ongoing. There are no more truly `strong sectors' in the EU, but the EMU is faring slightly better on that front. The strength in services and [...]

Regular gasoline prices increased to $2.24 per gallon (-10.9% y/y) last week following a rise to $2.19 during the week prior, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Prices remained down versus a 2014 high of $3.71 per gallon. [...]

Italian business and consumer confidence both sank in August. The Consumer Consumer confidence has been falling rapidly after having spiked in October 2015 and peaked on-one month later. Confidence has fallen in three of the last four [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas indicated that its General Business Activity index declined to -6.2 this month from -1.3 in July. These figures represent improvement, however, from readings as low as -34.6 in January. The [...]

Personal consumption expenditures increased 0.3% (3.8% y/y) during July following a 0.5% June rise, revised from 0.4%. The latest gain matched expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. So far this year, spending has risen [...]

Economic growth during Q2'16 was revised lower to 1.1% (SAAR, 1.2% y/y) from the initial estimate of a 1.2% gain. The revision was accompanied by the first report of corporate earnings, which showed a 4.9% rise (-2.2% y/y), the second [...]

Despite best efforts to boost growth inflation money and credit, the ECB's `whatever it takes' kitchen sink policies are not getting traction. The chart tells the story of hairsplitting (if any) progress in getting money or credit [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance eased to 261,000 (-4.0% y/y) during the week ended August 20 following an unrevised decline to 262,000 claims in the prior week. It was the lowest level of claims in five weeks, and near the [...]