Economy in Brief: May 2014

Retail and food service sales ticked 0.1% higher last month following a 1.5% March increase, revised from 1.1%. A 0.4% increase had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Sales of motor vehicles & parts increased 0.6% [...]

Total business inventories increased 0.4% in March (4.7% y/y) after a 0.5% February rise. The latest gain was accompanied by a 1.0% jump (4.3% y/y) in business sales after February's like rise. As a result, the inventory-to-sales [...]

The ZEW survey of current conditions and expectations for May is producing striking results. While the current index continues to show improvement rising to 62.1 in May from 59.5 in April and 51.3 in March, expectations have been cut [...]

Import prices declined 0.4% during April and reversed a revised 0.4% March rise, last month reported as 0.6%. A 0.4% increase had been expected in the Action Economics survey. A 0.7% drop (+0.1% y/y) in petroleum prices led the [...]

Small business sentiment is emerging from the winter doldrums. The National Federation of Independent Business reported that its Small Business Optimism Index jumped to 95.2 during April after its increase to 93.4 in March. The latest [...]

Retail and food service sales ticked 0.1% higher last month following a 1.5% March increase, revised from 1.1%. A 0.4% increase had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Sales of motor vehicles & parts increased 0.6% [...]

The Federal Government posted a $106.9 billion budget surplus during April of FY 2014. The latest figure compared to expectations for a $114.0 surplus in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. In the first seven months of this fiscal [...]

The Bank of France survey backtracked in April, falling to a value of 97.83 from March's 98.89. The index has a percentile standing in its historic range of 38.4%; it is weaker than its April standing only about 38% of the time. The [...]