Economy in Brief: November 2013

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline edged 3 cents higher last week to $3.22 (-6.1% y/y), but remained near the lowest level since February 2011. They're down from the $3.78 per gallon peak reached late in February. Much of the [...]

The employment cost index for private industry workers increased 0.4% (1.9% y/y) in Q3'13, following an unrevised 0.6% rise in Q2. The result was weaker than consensus expectations for a 0.5% gain. Benefit costs increased 0.6% (2.0% [...]

The EMU trade surplus is on the rise. While that may be good for the value of the euro, it may not be a good development overall. The upright green bars in the graph tell the story of persistent surpluses, but that story is given a [...]

The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo was unchanged at 54 this month after a 3 point decline in October, last month reported as a 2 point dip. This latest figure was weaker than [...]

The National Association of Realtors reported that its September Housing Affordability Composite Index recovered to 164.3 from 158.0 during August. The Affordability Index reached a peak of 213.6 in January when average mortgage [...]

Import prices fell 0.7% last month (-2.0% y/y) following a 0.1% September uptick. Consensus expectations were for a 0.3% decline. A 3.6% drop (-4.1% y/y) in petroleum import prices was accompanied by a 0.1% uptick (-1.3% y/y) in [...]

When forming the EMU, the European Central Bank pledged to keep inflation at 2%. In the better than 14 years of existence, the ECB has kept its end of the bargain holding the inflation rate to 2.02% over the period. Contrast this to [...]

Industrial production slipped 0.1% during last month (+3.3% y/y) following an unrevised 0.6% September increase. A 0.2% gain had been expected in the Action Economics survey. A 1.1% pullback (-0.8% y/y) in utility output held back [...]