Economy in Brief: March 2011

The U.S. current account deficit narrowed in Q4 to $113.3B from a revised $125.5B in Q3. Consensus expectations had called for $110.0B. The ratio to GDP was 3.1%. For 2010 as a whole, the deficit came to $470.2B, or 3.2% of GDP. The [...]

The U.S. Producer Price Index for finished goods jumped 1.6% last month and doubled its January increase. The latest increase was significantly greater than Consensus expectations for a 0.7% gain. Less food & energy, pricing pressures [...]

EMU inflation's trend is clear - The chart shows the inflation rate for EMU and for the largest three economies. The trend is clear. For the moment the Yr/Yr pace of EMU inflation is leading this pack, but German inflation is closing [...]

Total housing starts slumped by 22.5% during February versus January to the lowest level of the economic recovery. The decline to 479,000 starts was from an upwardly revised 618,000, initially reported as 596,000. The latest figure [...]

As expected, the Federal Open Market Committee today left the Federal funds rate in a "range from 0 to 1/4 percent." The Fed funds rate has remained unchanged since late-2008 at its lowest level ever. The discount rate also was left [...]

Germany's ZEW Indicator of Economic Expectations, based on the opinions of institutional investors and financial analysts, fell 1.6 points from 15.7% in February to 14.1% in March. The slight drop hides a much more dramatic decline in [...]

The National Association of Home Builders reported that its March index of housing market activity edged up to 17 from an unrevised 16, where it had been for four consecutive months. The latest figure remained above the all-time low [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that its Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions improved further to 17.50 during March, the highest since June of last year. The figure beat Consensus expectations for [...]