Economy in Brief: 2003

The Empire State Manufacturing Survey reported that the index of general business conditions rose more than expected this month. An unchanged reading versus December had been expected by some forecasters. Diffusion indexes for [...]

Retail sales rose strongly last month but less than Consensus expectations for a 1.4% gain. Sales in November were revised down due to a lowered gain for nonauto sales. The 3.4% gain in retail sales for all of 2002 was the weakest [...]

The Bundesbank reported that industrial production in Germany increased 2.5% from October to November. The consensus estimate was an advance of only 0.6%. While the month to month increase was surprising, a more realistic picture [...]

The OECD Index of Leading Indicators rose in November for the first month since May as a result of improvement in Continental Europe and in the US. Leaders in the UK and Japan continued a recent decline. Real economic growth in the [...]

Nonfarm payrolls were quite weak last month, falling 101,000 instead of rising 20,000 as expected by Consensus estimates. The decline in November payrolls was about doubled (mostly due to lowered private services) but figures for [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance were lower than expected during New Year's week. Claims fell 19,000 from the prior week's level which was revised slightly higher. The incidence of two holidays in back to back weeks [...]

The index of mortgage applications, compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association, jumped 24.3% in the opening week of 2003. Mortgage applications to refinance popped 29.1%, up 55% from four weeks earlier. Through 3Q02, Freddie Mac [...]

After improving slightly earlier in 2002, Euro-zone consumer confidence has weakened since mid year. Eurostat reported that the percent balance of respondents to their survey questions, reporting an increase less the percent reporting [...]