Economy in Brief: May 2011

The chart tells a pretty clear story for Japan. Although the quake and tsunami were late in the quarter they exerted a strong negative impact on Japan’s 2011 Q1 GDP. Because of this timing Q2 is sure to reflect further substantial [...]

Initial claims for jobless insurance fell sharply last week to 409,000 from 438,000 during the week earlier, revised from 434,000. The latest figure was lower than Consensus expectations for 420,000 claims and was the lowest since [...]

At 1.2% at a compounded annual rate Spain's GDP is advancing in 2011-Q1. But the pace is not impressive and the momentum is lacking as well. While Europe frets and stews over Greece the IMF warns that the debt crisis could spread to [...]

The current unemployment rate of 9.0% is down from its October, 2009 peak of 10.1%. The decline occurred due to negligible 0.9% growth in employment during that period. The economic recovery has been slow. Further impetus for the [...]

The balance of opinion on current economic conditions in Germany of the 295 Institutional investors and financial analysts responding to the ZEW financial market survey in May rose from 87.1% in April to 91.5%, the highest balance on [...]

Last week, the pump price for regular gasoline slipped back to $3.96 per gallon but remained near the highest level since July, 2008. Typically, however, pump prices start rising this time of year in anticipation of increased seasonal [...]

Overall, U.S. industrial production was unchanged during April after a revised 0.8% March jump, initially reported as 0.9%. The latest figure was weaker than Consensus expectations for a 0.4% gain according to Action Economics. More [...]

There's still no forward momentum behind housing sector activity. Housing starts fell 10.6% to 523,000 units last month after a revised 12.9% March gain to 585,000, initially reported as 549,000. The latest figure was the lowest in [...]