Economy in Brief: 2012

Employment growth is continuing at a moderate rate. That's indicated by the 209,000 increase in March private-sector payrolls reported by the payroll processor Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and economic consultants Macroeconomic [...]

Sales of light motor vehicles dipped m/m during March but remained near the four-year high. Unit vehicle sales fell 4.8% m/m to 14.37M (AR) during March according to Autodata Corporation. That sales rate was up 10.0% versus one year [...]

The Euro-Area is in a very tight spot. The ECB has a real policy quandary. It seems that more economists are coming to the inevitable conclusion that the Zone countries go together like oil and water. Only if you continue to 'agitate' [...]

The index of industrial production in Brazil rose 1.3% in February after having declined 1.5% in January. Although the index was still 3.3% below a year ago, the rise was greater than expected and a welcome reversal of trend that may [...]

Orders in the manufacturing sector recovered 1.3% (9.0% y/y) during February and reversed a little-revised 1.1% January slump. The rise reflected a 2.4% gain in orders for durable goods. That was little-changed from the advance report [...]

The rise has been relentless. Pump prices for regular gasoline rose another two cents last week to $3.94 per gallon, their highest since last May. The gain has been seventy cents (22%) since year-end. Reduced seasonal demand typically [...]

The Q1 Tankan results for large Japanese enterprises show a steady manufacturing sector and a slightly improved non-manufacturing sector. Medium-sized firms also show no MFG sector improvement with an even larger non MFG sector [...]

In mid February of this year, the Bank of Japan announced a price stability goal of 1.0% in place of its price expectation of 0.5% and raised its Asset Purchase Program by 10 trillion yen to 65 trillion yen in mid February. The policy [...]