Economy in Brief: September 2018

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reported that its Nonmanufacturing Business Index of current conditions at the company level increased to 46.8 during September, the highest reading since February 2015. A lessened 40 percent [...]

Consumer confidence during September reached the highest level since September 2000. The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index strengthened 2.7% (14.8% y/y) to 138.4 from 134.7 in August, initially reported as 133.4. The [...]

France's INSEE manufacturing survey fell sharply as the headline climate index shed the better part of three points dropping to 107.0 in September from 109.7 in August. The index has fallen more sharply than this less than 20% of the [...]

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Price Index for house purchases increased 0.2% in July (6.4% y/y) following a 0.3% June gain, revised from 0.2%. It was the weakest increase since March. Over the last three months, the index [...]

Gasoline prices, at $2.84 per gallon last week (10.1% y/y), were unchanged from the prior week and have been roughly steady since May. Haver Analytics constructs factors to adjust for the marked seasonal variation in prices. The [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas indicated in its Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey that the General Business Activity Index fell to 28.1 during September, the lowest level in four months. Despite its recent sideways movement, the [...]

The German IFO Institute index has gone sideways in September. The basic indexes that are plotted in the chart show that climate is unchanged at an index value of 105.3. The current situation is slightly weaker on a reading of 108.2, [...]

EMU PMIs soar then sink The EMU PMI sank to its cyclical low in mid-2016 then hit its cycle higher in 2018 as it ran up 5.9 points to its cycle high. In September 2018, the index has fallen back shedding 4.4 points from its peak and [...]