Economy in Brief: 2014

Households expectations regarding inflation have been fairly sanguine. The expected inflation rate of 3.2% during the next year was unchanged and near the midpoint of the varying changes during the last year. Inflation expectations [...]

The European Monetary Union has reported its aggregate and industrial production result for May: the results show a huge decline of 1.1% in May output. Manufacturing output is down by 1.7% in May; this is the weakest one-month [...]

The Federal Government posted a $70.5 billion budget surplus during June of FY 2014, disappointing expectations for a $105.0 billion surplus in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. For the first nine months of the current fiscal [...]

The American Bankers Association indicated that loan delinquency rates showed varied improvement during the first quarter. Delinquency rates, as a percentage of loans with outstanding payments, mostly fell despite the overall [...]

Germany's harmonized index of consumer prices advanced by 0.5% in June after falling in April and May. With June's HICP increase, the three-month annualized inflation rate is up to 1.4%, which is higher than the 0.9% pace over six [...]

Wholesale sales increased 0.7% (6.6% y/y) during May following an unrevised 1.3% gain in April. In the durable goods sector, sales inched 0.2% higher (5.9% y/y) after 1.6% increases in the prior two months. The latest rise was held [...]

Industrial production across the euro area has taken a hammering in May. It began with weaker than expected results from Germany, followed by unexpected weakness in Italy and then in France. All the early reporters of industrial [...]

The job market showed signs of improvement to begin the new month. Initial unemployment insurance claims declined to 304,000 (-13.9% y/y) during the week ended July 5 from an unrevised 315,000 in the prior week. The latest claims [...]