Economy in Brief: 2021

• Business inventories rise for fifth straight month. • Sales ease after six months of increase. • Inventory-to-sales ratio remains at six-year low. Total business inventories increased 0.5% during November (-3.2% y/y) following a [...]

The graphic tells a clear story of recent trends. Both exports and imports have been regaining momentum after they reached a 12-month growth-rate low in March. Growth rates for exports and imports are reviving with exports leading the [...]

• Production up 1.6% with widespread gains. • Durable goods up 1%, despite fall in motor vehicle output. • Capacity utilization has biggest gain since July. Industrial production advanced 1.6% in December, following an 0.5% increase [...]

• Consumer spending weakens for third straight month. • Spending declines are widespread across categories. Total retail sales including food service & drinking establishments declined 0.7% (+2.9% y/y) during December following a 1.4% [...]

• Food prices edged down while energy prices surged. • Core goods prices posted largest monthly rise since January 2014. • Service prices fell due to outsized drop in prices of trade services. The Producer Price Index for final demand [...]

• Empire State Business Conditions Index decreases to 3.5 in January; fourth consecutive monthly decay. • ISM comparable series edges up to 53.0 from 52.9. • Expectations index falls to 31.9 from 36.3. The Empire State Manufacturing [...]

• Import prices rose 0.9% in December as fuel prices jumped 7.8%. • Export prices gained 1.1% with fuels up 8.9%. • Excluding fuels both import and export prices increased 0.4%. Import prices grew a greater-than-expected 0.9% during [...]

Japan's industrial orders were mixed in November with headline orders falling by 1.5% and core orders rising by 1.5%. Year-on-year the comparison is exactly opposite with total orders rising by 1% and core orders lower by an outsized [...]