Economy in Brief: June 2020

• Prices post broad-based increases. • Crude oil prices lead the upturn. • Metals prices firm. The Industrial Materials Price Index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research (FIBER) increased 2.8% during the [...]

The U.K. is being clobbered by the lockdown designed to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Sales fell by 6% in March and by 18.8% in April but have rebound smartly by 11.7% in May. The growth rates in real terms are similar in [...]

• Current account deficit at $104.2 billion, 1.9% of GDP. • Exports and imports of goods and services decline. • Revisions create smaller deficits in recent years, larger ones in past. • Expanded statistics on trade in services. The [...]

• Initial jobless claims edged down to a still extremely-elevated 1.508 million in the week ending June 13. • Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance new filers rise to 760.526. • Continuing claim for state programs ticked down to [...]

The Bank of England Agents’ Survey is an aid to the BOE for policymaking. The survey is a series of judgmental responses that are scored on a scale from +5 to -5. A simple weighting of the responses shows this to be the weakest survey [...]

• Broad-based component gains lift the leading index. • Coincident indicators rebound moderately. • Lagging indicators indicate less economic stress. The Conference Board reported that its Composite Index of Leading Economic [...]

• Business conditions index is positive for first time since February. • Component gains are broad-based. • Expectations improve sharply. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reported that its General Factory Sector Business [...]

The Bank of England’s (BoE) decision to expand its quantitative easing programme today by Ł100bln was not a big surprise for financial market participants. The incoming dataflow in recent days has offered an unambiguously bleak [...]