Economy in Brief: April 2013

The Federal Government budget deficit narrowed sharply to $105.5B during March of FY'13 versus a deficit of $198.2B one year earlier. The figure roughly matched expectations. So far this fiscal year the deficit has totaled $600.5B, [...]

Prices in the U.S. foreign trade sector weakened last month and reversed earlier strength. Import prices fell 0.5% (-2.7% y/y) during March after the 0.6% February rise, earlier reported as 1.1%. The Action Economics survey looked for [...]

With most of the European monetary union's first 12 members having reported we can assess inflation in the zone. Of the 10 reporting countries in the table only three have inflation at or above the ECB's ceiling rate of 2%. That would [...]

Last week's decline in initial claims for jobless insurance more-than reversed strength during the prior two weeks. Claims fell to 346,000 (-8.5% y/y) during the week ended April 6 from a revised 388,000 during the prior week, [...]

The OECD's leading economic indicators show ongoing improvement among the major industrial economies. United States, Japan, and China, in particular, show significant upward movements in February from their January readings. Those [...]

The index of total mortgage applications from the Mortgage Banker Association increased 4.5% (21.7% y/y) last week and reversed the prior week's falloff. The rise was led by a 6.3% gain (28.5% y/y) in applications to refinance an [...]

Germany's trade surplus continues to widen as growth in the European Community continues to struggle. In February both German exports and imports fell. German exports declined by 1.5% while imports fell by 3.8%. Trends for both [...]

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the February Job Openings & Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report, the job openings rate rose to 2.8% from a revised 2.7% in January. The latest was the highest since June of last year and [...]