Economy in Brief: February 2012

The February Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions improved to 19.53 from January's unrevised 13.48. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York indicated that the increase was to its highest level since June 2010. [...]

The U.S. Commerce Department reported that business inventories rose 0.4% during December following a 0.3% gain in November. For the year growth moderated slightly to 7.7%. Business sales increased 0.7% in December. As a result, the [...]

German investors and analysts interviewed over the period from January 30 to February 13, 2012 by the ZEW Institute in Mannheim, Germany, became more optimistic. From an excess of pessimists of 21.5% in January there was an excess of [...]

U.S. import prices rose 0.3% last month after an unrevised 0.1% December slip. A 0.2% rise had been expected. Year-to-year, higher oil prices and the lower value of the dollar raised prices for imported products by 7.1% y/y. Petroleum [...]

Small business optimism appears intact. The National Federation of Independent Business indicted that its January index of small business optimism was 93.9 versus 93.8 in December. These figures are the highest since last February. [...]

Retail sales recovered last month following weak holiday spending. Retail sales rose 0.4% (5.8% y/y) during January after a revised no-change in December, initially reported as a 0.1% uptick. Consensus expectations had been for a 0.7% [...]

The preliminary estimate of a 3.0 billion annual rate decline in chained 2005 yen(-2.3% annual rate) in Japan's fourth quarter gross domestic product from the third quarter was greater than expected. During the quarter private and [...]

The economic expansion is expected to continue into next year, but its growth rate will be at or below trend. That's indicated in the latest from the ASA/NBER Economic Outlook Survey of Professional Forecasters released on Friday. For [...]