Economy in Brief: 2014

The improved labor market is spurring more consumer purchases. Retail and food service sales gained 0.3% during May following a 0.5% April advance, revised from 0.1%. A 0.5% increase had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast [...]

The Federal Government posted a $130.0 billion budget deficit during May of FY 2014. The latest figure compared to expectations for a $143.9 billion deficit in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. In the first eight months of this [...]

The UK economy continues to make progress. According to the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), a respected think tank in the United Kingdom, the UK economy has surpassed its pre-recession peak reached in [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that their total Mortgage Market Volume Index increased 10.3% last week (-42.3% y/y) following two weeks of decline. Nevertheless, applications remained two-thirds below the peak in September [...]

Wholesale sales increased 1.3% (7.8% y/y) during April following March's 1.6% gain, last month set at 1.4%. Durable goods sales gained 1.7% (6.0% y/y) led by a 3.1% jump (6.3% y/y) in furniture sales. Motor vehicle & parts sales [...]

Further indication of labor market improvement came today. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in its Job Openings & Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) that the job openings rate increased to 3.1% during April from a revised 2.9% in [...]

The price for a gallon of regular gasoline slipped to $3.67 last week (0.5% y/y) versus $3.69 to begin the month of June. The price has been near the current level since April and remained down from the $3.78 per gallon peak reached [...]

France saw its industrial production (IP) gain strongly in April, but it still did not fully shake off the drop in March. Italian IP is in the same boat in April as its 0.4% gain is less than its 0.5% drop in March. However, Italy has [...]