Economy in Brief: March 2014

Energy prices were mixed last week. The price for a gallon of regular gasoline increased to $3.55 (-40% y/y) last week, up 35 cents from the January low. Nevertheless, prices remained below the $3.78 per gallon peak reached in [...]

Housing starts in February slipped 0.2% to 907,000 units (-6.4% y/y) from 909,000 during January, revised up from 880,000. The latest level nearly matched expectations for 910,000 starts in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Starts [...]

In the wake of off-putting geopolitical news in Crimea, the ZEW German expectations index for March fell sharply to 46.6 from 55.7. Its current component continued to advance but did so very slowly. The current index moved up to 51.3 [...]

Consumer prices edged 0.1% higher (1.1% y/y) during February following a like January rise. The increase matched consensus expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Consumer prices excluding food and energy also gained [...]

Following a record 10 point decline under heavy snowfall, the Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo edged up 1 point this month to 47. The index now stands 6.8% above March of 2013. [...]

The output of U.S. factories increased 0.8% (1.6% y/y) during February following a little-revised 0.9% January decline. Overall industrial production improved 0.6% (2.8%y/y). Utility output, however, slipped 0.2% (+8.2% y/y) following [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York indicated that its Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions for March improved to 5.61 from 4.48 during February. The latest figure roughly equaled expectations for a level of 6.0, [...]

The chart shows the path of inflation for the three largest countries in the European Monetary Union (Spain is the fourth largest). It's clear from this chart that inflation for Germany, France and Italy tends to follow the same [...]