Economy in Brief

In the week ended October 21, the U.S. pump price for gasoline of $2.64 per gallon (-7.1% y/y) compared to $2.63 during the previous week. Haver Analytics adjusts these price figures for seasonal variation. The seasonally-adjusted [...]

Japan's trade data showed a gain in both exports and imports in September, but both flows are contracting year-over-year. However, there is a lot of price weakness because of weak energy prices and in real terms year-on-year exports [...]

The Industrial Materials Price Index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research (FIBER) declined 0.7% during the last four weeks. An uptick last week was part of an irregular sideways path in place since [...]

The EMU current account expanded to 26.6 billion euros in August from 21.6 billion euros in July. The trade surplus expanded, the balance on manufacturing trade moved to a larger surplus and the balance on nonmanufacturing trade also [...]

The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators eased 0.1% (+0.4% y/y) during September following a 0.2% August decline, revised from no change. A 0.1% increase had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast [...]

Building activity retraced some of last month’s strength. Housing starts fell a greater-than-expected 9.4% in September (+1.6% year-on-year) to 1.256 million-unit annual rate, from an upwardly-revised 1.386 million in August. The [...]

U.K. retail sales in September fell by 0.2% as the volume index ticked higher by 0.1%. Nominal sales volumes with a 50.7 percentiles are just a nudge above their median while sales volume growth over the past year at 6.3% has a 59.9 [...]

Industrial production fell 0.4% (-0.1% y/y) during September following a 0.8% August rise, revised from 0.6%. A 0.1% decline had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Factory sector output weakened 0.5% (-0.9% y/y) [...]