Economy in Brief: September 2017

The Empire State Manufacturing Index of General Business Conditions for September eased to 24.4 following its 15.4 point jump to 25.2 during August. The latest level was nearly the highest since September 2014 and continued to [...]

Despite its herky-jerky behavior, the EMU trade surplus is clearly in a declining phase. The surplus is at 18.6 billion euros in July, down from 21.7 billion euros in June and well below its 2016 average of 22.1 billion euros per [...]

The Federal Reserve indicated that storm damage curtailed the change in total industrial production, as well as the change in factory sector activity, by roughly 3/4 percentage point during August. Industrial production declined 0.9% [...]

Total business inventories increased 0.2% in July (3.0% y/y) following a 0.5% m/m gain in June. Retail inventories slipped 0.1% m/m (3.4% y/y) in July after a 0.6% m/m jump in June. Motor vehicle and parts inventories were unchanged [...]

Total retail sales and spending at restaurants declined 0.2% (+3.5% y/y) during August. The July estimate was revised lower to 0.3% from 0.6% and June's figure was reduced to -0.1% from 0.3%. A 0.1% increase had been expected in the [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance eased to 284,000 (+10.8% y/y) during the week ended September 9, following an unrevised jump to 298,000 due to Hurricane Harvey in the prior week. Expectations had been for 300,000 initial [...]

The Consumer Price index increased 0.4% (1.9% y/y) during August following a 0.1% July uptick. It was the strongest increase since January and compared to expectations for a 0.3% rise in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The CPI [...]

After falling for two months in a row, European car registrations sprang back strongly to gain 11.9% month-to-month in August. Still, the drops in the previous two months dominate the trend as the three-month (annualized) growth rate [...]