Economy in Brief: May 2012

Walking a very fragile and thin line, EMU posted no decline in GDP year-over-year or quarter-to quarter by eking out zeros in each measure. Among the key early reporting members Cyprus, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal and Spain [...]

The Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions for May improved to 17.09 from an unrevised 6.56 in April. Consensus expectations had been for a rise to 9.3. Based on these figures, Haver Analytics calculates an index [...]

Consumer prices were unchanged last month versus an expected 0.1% uptick. The figure lessened the y/y increase to 2.3%, down from its peak of 3.9% last September. Prices less food and energy increased a steady 0.2%, also as expected. [...]

Consumers lost their inclination to spend last month. Following four consecutive months of firm increase, retail sales ticked just 0.1% higher during April. That followed little-revised increases of 0.7% and 1.1% in March and [...]

The pump price of regular gasoline again fell four cents last week to $3.75 per gallon. The last six weeks of decline totals nineteen cents (4.7%) and reflects worries about economic growth in Europe and abundant supplies. Haver [...]

Euro-area industrial production (IP) rose by 0.9% m/m in March. It is still lower by 1.3% y/y but is sequentially cutting its losses and is up over three months at a 1.6% annual rate. The output of consumer durable goods and [...]

The German HICP rose by 0.2% in April compared to March. It is up at a 2.2% pace Yr/Yr and that is less than the 2.3% pace of last month. At 2.2% the rate of change is closing in on the Bundesbank's desired ceiling rate of 2% and of [...]

The University of Michigan's Index of Consumer Sentiment for mid-May rose to 77.8 from 76.4 in April. The gain was to the highest level since January 2008 and compared to expectations for a slip to 76.0. The reading of current [...]