Economy in Brief: July 2020

EMU inflation is weak. Inflation trends are weak and over the past 5 years inflation has been consistently below its targeted pace. That explains why the ECB has engaged in all sorts of policies to try to revive growth and is still [...]

• Home building continues to recover from coronavirus shutdown. • Building permits increase modestly. Low mortgage rates are bolstering new home building activity. Residential housing starts strengthened 17.3% last month (-4.0% y/y) [...]

• Business inventories down 2.3% in May; fifth consecutive monthly decline. • Sales jump 8.4%, but still 12.5% below January peak. • Inventory-to-Sales ratio decreases to a still elevated 1.51. Total business inventories dropped 2.3% [...]

• Housing market activity is improving broadly. • Number of prospective buyers revisits earlier highs. The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo moved up to 72 during July and added [...]

• Business conditions index has notable positive reading for second month. • Component gains somewhat mixed but generally favorable. • However, expectations have lower positive reading. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia [...]

• Consumer spending continues to strengthen. • Discretionary spending growth remains firm. Total retail sales, including food service establishments, increased 7.5% during June following a record 18.2% May increase, revised from [...]

• State initial jobless claims edged down to a still extremely-elevated 1.300 million in the week ending July 11. • Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance new filers decline to 928,488. • Continuing claims for state programs decline [...]

• Higher oil prices add to earlier gains. • Nonoil prices improve again. • Export prices strengthen. Import prices improved 1.4% last month following a 0.8% gain during May, revised from 1.0%. A 1.0% rise had been expected in the [...]