Economy in Brief: July 2018

It took the EMU manufacturing index 11 months to climb from a diffusion value of 55 up to its peak in December 2017 at 60.6, but then it took only six months to fall to 55 and stay there, now for two months running. In contrast, the [...]

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) index of U.S. house prices during May increased 0.2% (6.4% y/y), the same as in April which was revised from 0.1%. Over the past three months, prices have risen at a 2.5% annual rate, the [...]

Retail gasoline prices declined to $2.83 per gallon last week (+22.4% y/y) from $2.87 per gallon during the prior week. It was the lowest price in four weeks. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in [...]

The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes eased 0.6% (-2.2% y/y) to 5.380 million (AR) during June following a decline to 5.410 million in May, revised from 5.430 million. It was the third straight [...]

The Greek current account in May swung to surplus, its fourth surplus in the last 12 months. It is the fourth largest monthly current account surplus for Greece back to January 2002. Since that time, the Greek current account has been [...]

The German PPI gained 0.2% in June on the heels of a 0.6% rise in May. The headline PPI excluding construction is on an accelerating path, rising at an excessive 3% pace over 12 months, held at at 2.9% over six months and stepping up [...]

The Industrial Materials Price Index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research (FIBER) declined 3.7% last month. It has fallen for five straight weeks. Despite the declines, the index has risen by 6.5% y/y. [...]

The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators increased 0.5% (5.8% y/y) during June following stability in May, revised from 0.2%. A 0.4% rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. It was [...]