Economy in Brief: 2011

The debt crisis in the Euro Area widened yesterday. While interest rates in the smaller troubled spots, Greece, Portugal and Ireland, which were already very high, rose slightly, interest rates in Italy and Spain spiked. Italy is the [...]

While the growth rates of IP from 12-months and in seem different for France and Italy. But their respective growth rate paths in the recovery have been very similar. Over three-months Italy is the only country in the table with IP [...]

The balance of trade in Chinese goods with the United States was $17.9 billion in June, the highest monthly value on record. Chinese exports to the U.S. rose 5.1% from $25.8 billion in May to $27.1 billion in June while imports [...]

Consumers seem to have retrieved their credit cards, earlier stowed in the dresser drawer. Reported late Friday, overall consumer credit rose $5.1B during May following a $5.7B April advance, revised down from $6.3B reported last [...]

German exports outpaced imports in May helping to boost the German surplus in May. But real export orders are turning lower. Exports orders fell by 5.8% and are declining at accelerating pace over the least three-months and six [...]

The June employment painted a picture of a labor market with no forward momentum. Nonfarm payrolls rose just 18,000 following increases during the prior two months that were revised down by a collective 44,000. The latest gain [...]

Intuit compiles data covering small business employment. For June, its hiring index rose 0.2% versus May following seven months of 0.3% gain. These earlier increases raised the figure 3.2% y/y. The index fell 6.2% and 2.8% during all [...]

German IP sprang back to life in May jumping by 1.2% and more than making up for its drop of 0.8% in April. Still IP growth is slowing it has slipped from 7.5% over 12-months and from even stronger six months result to 6.3% annualized [...]