Economy in Brief: 2015

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Market Volume Index improved 0.1% last week (8.3% y/y). Purchase applications gained 1.0% (17.9% y/y) while applications to refinance eased 0.5% (+0.2% y/y). The [...]

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve reported that its Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Activity fell sharply to 8.1 this month from an unrevised 54.1 in June. These figures are not seasonally adjusted. Since inception in 2011, July [...]

Finland's economy has been depressed for the last four years. It is still struggling to shrug off the loss of a lot of logging-related business to other nations and the departure Nokia and related technology businesses. While the EMU [...]

Gasoline prices eased last week to an average $2.80 per gallon at the pump (-22.0% y/y) but remained higher than the low of $2.04 late in January. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in pump prices. [...]

The industrial commodity price index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research (FIBER) deteriorated during the last month. Factory sector production so far this year, both total and industrial supplies, has [...]

The industrial commodity price index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research (FIBER) deteriorated during the last month. Factory sector production so far this year, both total and industrial supplies, has [...]

Exports and the EMU trade surplus fell in May. Exports fell by 1.5%. Imports were flat. The trade surplus fell to 21.2 billion euros in May from 23.9 billion euros in April. Exports fell on a broad front in May with manufacturing [...]

Housing starts during June increased 9.8% (26.5% y/y) to 1.174 million (AR) from 1.069 million in May, last month reported as 1.036 million. June's figure exceeded expectations for 1.108 million starts in the Action Economics Forecast [...]