Economy in Brief

Retail gasoline prices edged up to $2.28 per gallon last week (-12.7% year-on-year). Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in gasoline pump prices. The seasonally-adjusted price rose to $2.47 per [...]

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) reported that its Small Business Optimism Index declined to 101.2 during January, down for the fifth consecutive month. The index declined 3.1% m/m and it was 5.3% lower y/y. Six [...]

With the never ending saga of Brexit hanging over its head, the U.K. economy is being blasted more by disaffected corporations than by weak consumer spending. Exports have been the weakest growth category of all. That is not too [...]

The Industrial Materials Price Index from the Foundation for International Business and Economic Research (FIBER) increased 3.0% during the last month, but remained 12.1% below the prior year's level. Gains were broad-based, but [...]

The German trade surplus widened to 19.38 billion euros in December from 18.84 billion euros in November. It was only slightly smaller than its 20.77 billion euro surplus of 12 months ago. While German industrial data are showing [...]

Consumer credit outstanding increased $16.54 billion (4.9% y/y) to $4.010 trillion during December following a $22.40 billion November rise, revised from $22.16 billion. A $17.5 billion gain had been expected in the Action Economics [...]

Four blood-lettings and a funeral? Germany's industrial production has fallen in each of the last four months. Can a recession be far behind? German indicators are screaming in unison about the onset of economic weakness. The [...]

Initial unemployment insurance claims declined to 234,000 in the week ended February 2 after a jump to an unrevised 253,000 during the prior week. The shortfall reversed nearly half of the previous week's increase to the highest level [...]