Economy in Brief: July 2018

The U.S. Treasury Department reported that during the first nine months of fiscal year 2018, the federal government budget deficit totaled $607.1 billion, up 16.1% versus $523.1 billion in the first nine months of FY'17. During June [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose to 231,000 during the week ended June 30 In the week ending June 23, continuing claims for unemployment insurance increased to 1.739 million Data on weekly unemployment insurance are [...]

Inflationary pressures moderated last month. Consumer prices inched up 0.1% (2.9% y/y) during June following two months of 0.2% increase. Expectations had been for a 0.2% rise in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The CPI excluding [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped to 214,000 during the week ended July 7, down 18,000 from the 232,000 of the prior week, which was revised up by a marginal 1,000. The Action Economics Forecast Survey looked for [...]

EMU industrial output expands in all sectors in May. All sectors and subsectors in the table gained 1% on the month or more except capital goods where output gained 0.7% month-to-month. Over three months, the rebound is strong with [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that its total Mortgage Applications Index rose 2.5% last week (-4.9% y/y), following a 0.5% decline during the prior week. The effective interest rate on a 15-year mortgage was little changed [...]

Wholesale trade inventories grew 0.6% (5.9 year-on-year) in May following an unrevised 0.1% April gain. The May reading matched the increase reported in the advance report released on June 27 and compared to the 0.5% growth expected [...]

Portugal's inflation rate eased to a 0.3% gain in June after a 0.4% rise in May. That increase has the three-month inflation pace rising faster than the six-month pace and also represents a higher three-month pace at 4.4% than the [...]