Economy in Brief: March 2015

Japan's sector indices improved month-to-month in three of four sectors as well as overall. But year-over-year all sectors are lower and all sectors have been net lower over 12 months for seven months in a row. The Bank of Japan has [...]

At today's meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed indicated its continued expectation for moderate economic growth and improving labor market conditions. It stated that consumer spending was benefitting from the decline [...]

Italy's trade picture showed a weakening in exports and still-weak import growth as it echoed the message from the broader European trade data today. European data showed a larger surplus in January as exports remained flat and [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that their total Mortgage Market Volume Index declined 3.9% last week (+6.7% y/y). Applications have moved roughly one-quarter lower since a late-January peak. Refinance applications led the [...]

It's been a harsh winter in some regions of the country. Housing starts during February declined 17.0% to 897,000 units (-3.3% y/y) from 1.081 million in January, revised from 1.065 million. The decline disappointed expectations for [...]

Germany's ZEW index saw increases in both its current index and its index of expectations. Both are in `good shape' in terms of their levels and in terms of their momentum. The current index is higher than its March value historically [...]

After rising earlier this month,gasoline prices posted a 4 cent decline last week to $2.45 cents per gallon. Nevertheless, prices remained 40 cents higher (20.0%) than the low seven weeks ago. Despite the gains, prices remained well [...]

The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo declined to 53 in March (+15.2% y/y) from an unrevised 55 in February. It was the lowest figure since July. During the last ten years, there [...]