Economy in Brief: 2019

Declines in factory sector production continue to put downward pressure on prices. The Industrial Materials Price Index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research (FIBER) declined 3.2% during the last four [...]

Japan's trade deficit came in at 127 billion yen in July, an enlargement from the 34 billion yen in June. Neither nominal exports nor imports show any clear patterns in the changes over 12 months, six months and three months. Nominal [...]

New building activity fell for the third straight month during July. Housing starts declined 4.0% (+0.6% y/y) to 1.191 million (SAAR) after falling to 1.241 million in June, revised from 1.253 million. Starts in May also were revised [...]

The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo rose to 66 in August from 65 during July. The index has been trending higher since its December 2018 low, but remains below the expansion [...]

The Empire State Manufacturing Index of General Business Conditions rose to 4.3 during July....... The Empire State figures are diffusion indexes, which are calculated by subtracting the percent of respondents reporting declines from [...]

Total business inventories rose 0.3% (5.3% y/y) during May following an unrevised 0.5% April gain. Total business sales rose 0.2% (1.5% y/y)........ The manufacturing and trade data are in Haver's USECON database. Manufacturing & [...]

Despite the risks, U.K. retail sales continue to expand Despite ongoing concerns over Brexit, a plunging pound sterling, and inflation that has risen above the BOE target, U.K. retail spending is holding up. There has even been some [...]

Industrial production declined 0.2% during July (+0.5% year-on-year) following an offsetting revisions to May and June – now both 0.2% gains revised from 0.4% and unchanged respectively. The Action Economics Survey forecast a 0.1% [...]