Economy in Brief: March 2019

The National Association for Business Economics expects 2.0% growth in real GDP during 2020 following 2.4% growth in 2019, revised from the prior forecast of 2.7%. Both growth rates are below the 2.9% advance in 2018. Quarterly growth [...]

Wholesale inventories increased 1.2% month-on-month (7.7% year-over-year) during January following a 1.1% gain (this report was delayed as a result of the government shutdown). The Informa Global Markets Survey expected a 0.2% rise. [...]

The U.S. Treasury Department reported that the federal government budget deficit for February of $234.0 billion compared to a $215.2 billion deficit one year earlier. A $227.0 billion shortfall had been expected in the Action [...]

If there is a silver lining to the severe weakness in EMU and German manufacturing as exhibited by the Markit flash PMI readings for March, it is that the transmission of weakness to services has been blunted. The chart shows that [...]

The housing market recovered last month following a year's decline. The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes jumped 11.8% (-1.8% y/y) during February to 5.510 million units (SAAR) from 4.930 million [...]

Wholesale inventories increased 1.2% month-on-month (7.7% year-over-year) during January following a 1.1% gain in December (this report was delayed as a result of the government shutdown). The Informa Global Markets Survey expected a [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell 9,000 in the week ended March 16 to 221,000 from 230,000 the week before, which was revised up slightly from an initially reported 229,000. The Action Economics Forecast Survey projected [...]

Canada, like much of the global economy, is showing sales weakness across sectors with its most topical three-month and six-month sales growth rates by sector showing declines. Manufacturing shipments, retail sales - both overall and [...]