Economy in Brief: May 2013

The upcoming summer driving season is lending strength to petroleum prices. The price of regular gasoline gained six cents last week to $3.60 per gallon yet it's still 4.0% lower than last year. Prices reached a peak of $3.78 per [...]

The Zew index that surveys financial experts in Germany moved lower in April compared to March for both its current and its expectations readings. The current reading notched down to a 9.2 net reading from 13.6 in March. The [...]

Prices in the U.S. foreign trade sector weakened further last month. Import prices fell 0.5% (-2.6% y/y) during April after a 0.2% March decline, earlier reported as -0.5%. The Action Economics survey looked for a 0.4% drop in prices. [...]

Small business optimism rebounded last month and more-than-recovered its March weakness. The National Federation of Independent Business reported that its Small Business Optimism Index jumped during April to a seasonally adjusted 92.0 [...]

Total business inventories were roughly unchanged during March (4.5% y/y) for the second consecutive month. The figure was accompanied by a 1.1% drop (+1.8% y/y) in business sales which reversed the prior month's increase. As a [...]

There was broad-based improvement in retail purchases last month. Retail sales during April nudged up 0.1% (3.7% y/y) following a 0.5% slip in March, earlier reported as -0.4%. Earlier numbers also were revised. The latest figure [...]

The Federal Government ran a budget surplus during April of FY'13 of $112.9B, twice the surplus during April of last year. The figure slightly exceeded consensus expectations for a surplus of $95.0B. So far this fiscal year the [...]

Japan's economy-watchers index moved up sharply in March to a level of 57.3 from 53.2. It has reached its highest mark since early 2000 when the index was launched. The rise in the economy-watchers index has been particularly sharp in [...]