Economy in Brief: 2011

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that its Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions fell to -7.79. The figure was the first negative reading since November of last year. The number ran counter to Consensus [...]

The National Association of Home Builders reported that its June index of housing market activity fell to 13 versus an unrevised 16 in May. Though the latest figure remained above the all-time low of 8 reached in January of 2009, it [...]

The chart of the three main EMU sectors tells the basic story of the Zone. Capital goods output is relatively steady at growth rates between 6% and 10%. Intermediate goods output has slowed but has done so erratically. Meanwhile, [...]

U.S. industrial production ticked up 0.1% last month after an unrevised no-change during April. The latest figure was weaker than Consensus expectations for a 0.2% gain according to Action Economics. However, weather played a big [...]

The good news about today's reported 0.2% increase in the May CPI was that it was the smallest monthly gain since November. The discouraging part of the report was that less food & energy, the 0.3% increase was the firmest since 2008. [...]

The French trade picture is showing steady slippage. The trade deficit is eroding steadily. Exports have slowed sharply from their year ago growth rate of 17.7% to 7.2%; the sequential growth rates for exports are somewhat mixed but [...]

The boom in China is not about to bust. The weakness in China's industrial production and retail sales evident in April was reversed in May. After declining 0.57% in April from March, industrial production rose 0.53% in May from [...]

The U.S. Commerce Department reported that business inventories rose 0.8% in April after a revised 1.3% March increase, originally reported as 1.0%. Quick inventory accumulation nevertheless left the inventory-to-sales ratio of 1.26 [...]