Economy in Brief: October 2007

The ISAE business index did improve slightly in October from September. But the index, as well as its momentum, remain solidly in a down trend The ISAE business survey components tell a tale of a sector that is fading. For overall [...]

The ISAE business index did improve slightly in October from September. But the index, as well as its momentum, remain solidly in a down trend The ISAE business survey components tell a tale of a sector that is fading. For overall [...]

Consumer confidence held steady in the Netherlands and in Italy in October. The Dutch measure of consumer confidence had declined 16 percentage points in September, probably reflecting the turmoil in financial markets resulting from [...]

Italy’s retail sales stay on a low-growth path. Italy’s retail sales have slowed and are staying at that slower pace. Over the past year, at 0.6%, retail sales have slowed from their previous year’s pace of 1.1%. On sequential growth [...]

The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)-UBS reported that chain store sales last week retraced all of the prior week's rise with a 1.5% decline. That drop followed the 1.0% gain in the prior week but nevertheless was the [...]

The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)-UBS reported that chain store sales last week retraced all of the prior week's rise with a 1.5% decline. That drop followed the 1.0% gain in the prior week but nevertheless was the [...]

The threat to growth in Europe has been named in the past weekend’s G-7 meeting as primarily due to the strong Euro. The Euro remains a threat to growth though Germany’s finance minister was quite blasé about it in comparison to [...]

While China's balance of trade on goods has risen steadily, it has been the rise in exports that has captured most attention. Now attention is beginning to the paid to the deceleration in imports that has begun to take place in the [...]