Economy in Brief

Recent improvement in factory production has given support to industrial materials prices. The Industrial Materials Price Index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research (FIBER) edged 0.1% higher during the [...]

German PPI drops as Brent oil prices continue to descend The drop in the German PPI brings several thoughts to mind. One of them is that ongoing price declines are not good with inflation already undershooting and the European Central [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance in the week ending September 14 increased 2,000 to 208,000 (-1.9% y/y) from an upwardly revised 206,000 in the previous week (originally 204,000). The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected [...]

The U.S. current account deficit narrowed to $130.4 billion during Q1'19 from $143.9 billion during Q4'18....... The surplus on primary income rose modestly to $61.1 billion, down versus the record high of $66.4 billion reached one [...]

U.K. nominal retail sales ticked up 0.1% in August while sales volume fell by 0.3%. The slowing was unexpected, but sales growth is still solidly in place. Nominal sales are up by 3.4% over 12 months and sales over six months are [...]

The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators was unchanged during August (1.1% y/y) following a 0.4% July increase, revised from 0.5%. The index has been trending sideways since late-last year. A 0.1% increase [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that sales of existing homes rose again in August, reaching 5.490 million, a 1.3% (2.6% y/y) increase from July's 5.420 million, which was unrevised and up 2.5% from June. The August [...]

The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes increased 2.5% during July to 5.420 million (0.6% y/y).... The data on existing home sales, prices and affordability are compiled by the National Association [...]