Economy in Brief: March 2014

The Chicago Federal Reserve reported that its National Activity Index (CFNAI) returned to positive territory last month. The gain to 0.14 followed a January reading of -0.45, revised from -0.39, which was the second consecutive [...]

The trend in the Markit composite PMI for the European Monetary Union advanced further in March even as the monthly readings backtracked to 53.2 from 53.3 in February. The 12-month, six-month and three-month moving averages show a [...]

The National Association for Business Economics released its median estimate for real GDP growth in 2015 and it's expected to improve to 3.1% from an unchanged estimate of 2.8% during 2014. Quarterly growth is expected to hold steady [...]

Reported early this month, the overall civilian unemployment rate during February was 6.7%, down from the high of 9.6% reached during all of 2010. Improvement extends across all age brackets. The youngest age brackets continue, [...]

The euro area current account surplus moved even higher in January as goods exports pulled back slightly and goods imports fell relatively sharply. Over three months export and import growth rates are pretty similar, a 2.2% pace for [...]

Sales of existing single-family homes in February slipped 0.4% (-7.1% y/y) to 4.600 million (AR) versus an unrevised 4.620 million in January. Sales were down 14.5% versus the July high and roughly equaled expectations for 4.620 [...]

The index of Leading Economic Indicators, published by the Conference Board, increased 0.5% (4.7% y/y) in February following a 0.1% January uptick, revised from 0.3%. A 0.2% rise was expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. [...]

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank reported that its General Business Conditions Index for March rebounded to 9.0 and made up February's falloff to -6.3. The latest figure surpasses Consensus expectations for 4.0. The seasonally [...]