Economy in Brief: March 2016

The National Association of Realtors reported that existing home sales declined 7.1% to 5.080 million (SAAR, +2.2% y/y) from an unrevised 5.470 million in January. It was the lowest level of sales in three months. Sales of 5.36 [...]

The National Activity Index from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago fell to -0.29 during February. It followed a positive 0.41 in January which had been the first positive reading since July. The three-month moving average remained [...]

The U.S. Current Account Deficit deepened to $484.1 billion during 2015 from $389.5 billion in 2014. It was the largest deficit since 2008 and amounted to 2.8% of GDP. For the fourth quarter alone, the deficit eased to $125.3 billion [...]

Germany's PPI fell in February and it has been falling with great persistence. There have been 10 month-to-month declines in the PPI in the last 12 months and it has been 13 months since the German PPI has increased month-to-month at [...]

The job openings rate improved to 3.7% during January from 3.6% in December. Revisions sharply lowered figures back to 2013, but benchmark revisions extend back to 2000. The private sector job openings rate of 4.0% compared to 2.1% in [...]

The Conference Board's Index of Leading Economic Indicators improved 0.1% during February (2.3% y/y), following declines during the prior two months. The improvement fell short of expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey [...]

Initial unemployment insurance claims increased to an expected 265,000 during the week ended March 12 from 258,000 in the prior week, revised from 259,000. The expectations figure is from the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The four [...]

The EMU trade balance shrank in January and stands a tick below its three-month average. Exports have fallen in January and are lower over three months and six months but higher by 1.2% over 12 months. Imports are lower in January, [...]