Economy in Brief

The headline Final Demand Producer Price Index using new methodology gained an expected 0.2% during September (2.6% y/y) following a 0.1% August dip. The PPI excluding food & energy also rose an expected 0.2% last month (2.5% y/y) [...]

Gasoline prices increased to $2.90 per gallon last week (15.9% y/y), up three cents from the prior week. Haver Analytics constructs factors to adjust for the marked seasonal variation in prices. The seasonally-adjusted gasoline price [...]

Trade trends and conditions With exports at 47% of GDP, it is no wonder that Germans watch export performance very closely and worry about even small perturbances to export trends. In August, German exports fell by a tiny 0.1%, but [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) reported that its Small Business Optimism Index fell to 107.9 during September after reaching a record high of 108.8 in August. The index level remained 4.8% higher than it was [...]

The OECD leading economic indicators (LEIs) show all countries/regions in the top panel below a value of 100 in August except for the United States which stands at a level of 100. Month-to-month only the U.S. and China have improved [...]

Consumer credit outstanding increased $20.07 billion (4.7% y/y) during August after a $16.60 billion July rise, revised from $16.65 billion. It was the strongest gain in three months. A $15.0 billion gain had been expected in the [...]

The graphic on German orders is quite clear. Domestic and foreign order growth saw German firms peaking in late-2017 or early-2018 with domestic orders peaking first. Since then there has been a slowdown in place that has progressed [...]

The labor market remains on a firm footing. Nonfarm payrolls increased 134,000 (1.7% y/y) during September, though it was the weakest increase in twelve months. The August rise, however, was revised to 270,000 from 201,000, and the [...]