Economy in Brief: 2017

Total retail sales and spending at restaurants fell 0.3% during May (+6.0% y/y) following an unrevised 0.4% April rise. A 0.1% increase had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Sales at motor vehicle & parts [...]

Regular gasoline prices dipped to $2.37 per gallon last week (-1.4% y/y), the lowest level in four weeks. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in gasoline pump prices. Since prices normally rise this [...]

The way things are... The ZEW survey shows that the current rated economic situations in June improved everywhere except in the U.S. and the U.K. The absolute readings still show negative readings for Italy and France despite their [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business reported that its Small Business Optimism Index held at 104.5 during May. The index remained up 11.4% from the level of 93.8 in May 2016. An increased 39% of firms reported that they [...]

The headline Final Demand Producer Price Index remained stable during May following a 0.5% April gain. The y/y increase was firm at 2.4%. Expectations also were for no change in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The PPI excluding [...]

The U.S. Treasury Department reported that during May, the federal government ran an $88.4 billion budget deficit compared to a $52.5 billion deficit in May 2016. An $87.0 billion deficit had been expected in the Action Economics [...]

Over the last 10 years, Japan's PPI has had a nice tracking relationship with Japan's CPI. Of course, the PPI is more volatile than CPI inflation, with PPI inflation rising faster than CPI inflation when inflation is rising and [...]

Inventories at the wholesale level fell 0.5% during April following a 0.1% March uptick, revised from 0.2%. It was the second decline in the last four months, and halved the y/y increase to 1.6%. Durable goods inventories declined [...]