Economy in Brief: June 2015

Growth in average hourly earnings for U.S. workers has been fairly stable for the last several years, near 2%. Through last year, that translated into a roughly unchanged level of real earnings as consumer prices continued to rise. [...]

Italy's current account surplus is higher in April, rising to 4.79 billion euros from 3.46 billion euros in March. The surplus was last higher in February, but this is a very high surplus reading for Italy with February's value the [...]

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank reported that its General Factory Sector Business Conditions Index for June increased to 15.2 from an unrevised 6.7 in May. It was the highest level since December. Expectations averaged 8.0 in [...]

The current account deficit was $113.3 billion in Q1, following $103.1 billion in Q4 2014 and compares to $96.4 billion in Q1 a year ago. All these data are affected by annual revisions, and all are seasonally adjusted. The widening [...]

The Index of Leading Economic Indicators from the Conference Board posted a 0.7% rise in May (5.7% y/y), the same as during April which was unrevised. A 0.4% increase had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The [...]

The labor market remains on solid ground. Initial unemployment insurance claims declined to 267,000 (-14.3% y/y) during the week of June 13 compared to an unrevised 279,000 during the prior week. The four week moving average fell to [...]

The consumer price index jumped 0.4% during May (-0.0% y/y) following an unrevised 0.1% increase. It was the strongest rise since January 2013. Expectations had been for a 0.5% increase in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Prices [...]

U.K. retail sales rose by 0.2% in May, bucking expectations that sales would drop. Sales are now up for two months in a row for the first time since November of last year. U.K. retail sales offer up no clear pattern of acceleration or [...]