Economy in Brief: April 2015

The European economics continue to show a good deal of interregional disparity, but for the most part trends in production are improving. In the EMU in February only three of the early reports showed monthly IP declines, down from [...]

Import prices declined 0.3% (-10.5% y/y) during March and reversed February's 0.2% increase, revised from 0.4%. The Action Economics Forecast Survey anticipated a 0.4% decline. Prices of petroleum imports increased 0.8% (-45.1% y/y) [...]

Inventories at the wholesale level increased 0.3% during February (6.1% y/y) following a 0.4% January rise. Durable goods inventories gained 0.3% (7.6% y/y). Motor vehicle inventories increased 2.4% (12.6% y/y) and electrical [...]

German economic data have become a bit more confused recently. Yesterday German orders data were decisively downbeat with what leadership there was coming from an unexpected source, the consumer sector. In today's industrial output [...]

Job market improvement continues to be evidenced in the weekly report on claims for unemployment insurance. Initial claims in the week ended April 4 nudged up to 281,000 (-9.4% y/y) from 267,000 during the prior week, revised from [...]

Recent German and EMU data have been on an upswing. This month's German orders report is a divergence from that. Its weak results are unexpected with orders falling for the second month in a row and lower on balance over a broad [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that their total Mortgage Market Volume Index inched 0.4% higher last week (30.7% y/y). Purchase applications jumped 6.8% (11.9% y/y), strong for the third straight week, while refinance [...]

Consumer credit outstanding increased $15.5 billion during February following a $10.8 billion increase in January, initially reported as $11.6 billion. Expectations were for a $13.8 billion increase, according to the Action Economics [...]