Economy in Brief: March 2010

UK retail sales are up by a sharper-than-expected 1.9% in February but the bounce is from a 2.5% drop in January. The UK sales path has been a rocky one as the growth rate chart above attests. As you would expect, Yr/Yr sales have [...]

If there is such a thing as a classic signal for a weather effect this is it: sales fall but Yr/Yr prices rise. Housing prices are not seasonally adjusted. They do exhibit some pretty pronounced seasonal patterns, however. Yr/Yr [...]

TheEuro-Area PMIs rose sharply in March. For MFG the index reached a new post recession high, it s strongest level since January 2007. For services, the 1.68 point rise to 53.65 brings it close to its cycle high reading of 53.71 and [...]

Broad trends: Durable goods orders and shipments are still rebounding, but the pace of increase has topped out in February when we observe the Yr/Yr trend in the chart. The rise in orders continues to run ahead of shipments growth. [...]

Broad trends: Durable goods orders and shipments are still rebounding, but the pace of increase has topped out in February when we observe the Yr/Yr trend in the chart. The rise in orders continues to run ahead of shipments growth. [...]

After some ten months of deflation measured by the year to year decline in the consumer price index, Taiwan has now experienced two months of inflation. In January the year to year change in the consumer price index was a small [...]

France’s business climate indicator complied by Insee, rose to 94 in March from 91 in February. This is its best standing since August of 2008. Still it is not a good level. The climate indicator is only in the 47th percentile of its [...]

It probably was the weather that helped depress home sales last month. The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes fell 0.6% from January as winter storms again blanketed the East and Midwest regions. [...]