Economy in Brief: April 2014

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York indicated that its Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions for April declined to 1.29 from 5.61 during March. The latest was the lowest since November and fell short of [...]

Consumer prices increased 0.2% (1.5% y/y) during March following two months of 0.1% uptick. Most price categories firmed. The latest increase outpaced consensus expectations for a 0.1% rise in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. [...]

Total business inventories increased 0.4% in February (4.2% y/y), the same as in January. These gains were accompanied a 0.8% rebound (1.8% y/y) in business sales after January's 1.1% decline. As a result, the inventory-to-sales ratio [...]

Retail sales gained 1.1% last month (3.8% y/y) following a 0.7% February increase, revised from 0.3%. The gain was the largest since September 2012 and roughly matched the 0.8% rise expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. A [...]

Industrial production in the European Monetary Union moved up by 0.2% in February following a flat performance in January. That also followed a decline of 0.3% in December. However, measured on a quarter-to-date basis, industrial [...]

The overall final demand PPI increased 0.5% (1.4% y/y) in March following an unrevised 0.1% February slip. It was the largest increase in twelve months and easily beat expectations for a 0.1% uptick in the Action Economics Forecast [...]

Inflation has taken on a life of its own as a policy driver in the European Monetary Union. Jens Weidmann, President of the Deutsche Bundesbank, who has been renowned for his opposition to anything that looked like an innovative [...]

The Federal Government posted a $36.9 billion budget deficit during March of FY 2014. The latest deficit was shallower than the Action Economics Forecast Survey expectation of an $80.0 billion deficit. In the first half of this fiscal [...]