Economy in Brief: May 2012

The pump price of regular gasoline fell another four cents last week to $3.71 per gallon. The last seven weeks of decline totals twenty three cents (-5.8%). Haver Analytics' seasonally-adjusted price for regular declined six cents to [...]

Sales of existing homes rose 3.4% last month to a 4.620 annual rate (10.0% y/y) from a revised 4.470M during March, last month reported as 4.480M. Sales of existing single-family homes alone increased 3.0% last month to 4.090M, up [...]

The effects of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan last year are still being felt. The disruptions in production led to a decline in exports and a rise in imports. Japan's typical trade surplus, was turned into a deficit [...]

The I.G. Metall union and employers agreed to a 4.3% pay rise, a compromise between the union's demand of a 6.5% raise and management's offer of a 2.6% raise. It was also the largest pay rise since the 5.4% negotiated, twenty years [...]

For 2013, the National Association for Business Economics expects real GDP growth of 2.7% versus 2.8% forecast in February. That follows expected 2.3% growth in this year, little changed from 2.4% forecasted earlier. Expectations for [...]

The April National Activity Index (CFNAI) from the Chicago Federal Reserve improved to 0.11 from a revised -0.44 in March, last month reported as -0.29. However, the three-month moving deteriorated to -0.06, the first negative reading [...]

The graph on the left shows a good clear picture of the recent relationship between the German PPI and the CPI. It is not very impressive. The ex-energy gauges are not even very loosely correlated. However, their two trends have [...]

Consumer opinion regarding the economy deteriorated for most of this week versus the first full week of May, according to the Rasmussen Survey. On average, the Consumer Index slipped to 88.7 from 90.4 last week. That follows a [...]