Economy in Brief: 2003

As the effective interest rate on a 30-Year mortgage dropped below 6%, applications to refinance existing mortgages surged. The index of mortgage applications compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association rose 5.5% last week, but the [...]

February indicators of business and consumer confidence in Europe show a mixed picture. In general, businessmen appear to be slightly more optimistic in February than they were in January while consumers are more pessimistic. The [...]

Chain store sales dropped 0.8% last week according to the BTM-UBSW survey. This latest drop followed declines in two of the prior three weeks. The President's Day snowstorm which hit roughly half of the country likely accounted for [...]

The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey index of net hiring deteriorated for 2Q03 from the improved level of the prior nine months. The not seasonally adjusted survey results indicated that 22% of firms plan to add employees in 2Q03 [...]

The Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) rose as expected last month. Excluding food and energy, prices rose less than Consensus expectations for a 0.2% gain. The core CPI less tobacco rose 0.1% (1.8% y/y). The data reflect annual revisions [...]

Finished producer prices rose in January by the most for any one month since a 1.9% increase in January 1990. (That spike was followed by three months of decline.) Consensus expectations were for a 0.4% gain. Excluding food and energy [...]

Housing starts were stronger than expected last month. Total starts rose slightly from an upwardly revised December level. Starts had been expected to decline slightly. Single family starts rose 2.1% m/m, nearly to the record high [...]

Inflation in the United Kingdom was 2.7% in January, 2003, marking the third month of inflation above the Bank of England’s target rate of 2.5%. The Bank uses the year over year change in the retail price index excluding mortgage [...]