Economy in Brief: February 2011

The early reports of GDP headlines are presented in the table above. EMU GDP is a touch weaker than had been expected. While UK growth was the first to disappoint, the UK today posted a 0.7% rise in its LEI for December clearly the UK [...]

The rate of business inventory accumulation picked back up in December. The 0.8% gain was double the 0.4% November increase, revised from 0.2%. During the last three months, inventories rose at an 8.0% annual rate versus the Q3 peak [...]

The February results of the ZEW survey of some 267 analysts and institutional investor in Germany show small improvements in their appraisal of current conditions and their expectations for the next six months. Their expectations for [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that its Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions improved further to 15.43, the highest since June of last year. The figure roughly equaled Consensus expectations for [...]

U.S. import prices showed broad-based strength. During January, prices jumped another 1.5% after an upwardly revised 1.2% December increase, initially reported as 1.1%. The increase was stronger than Consensus expectations for a 0.8% [...]

January consumer spending lost forward momentum. Retail and food service sales rose 0.3% last month after a 0.5% December increase that was revised from 0.6%. Sales have risen for seven consecutive months; however, the latest was the [...]

China reported a trade surplus of $6.5 billion for January, a decline of $6.6 billion from December, 2010 and $7.7 billion below January of a year ago. The decline from December was the result of 2.2% decline in exports and a 2.3% [...]

The US economy and the OECD remain on roughly the same path. The trend restored leading indicators from the OECD show that from 2008 onward, there has been a severe down-phase, and a strong up-phase that has since played out and now a [...]