Economy in Brief: September 2019

Chart shows weakening auto sales and weakening sales of all industrial products including autos Retail sales volumes in France are showing some growth but very little strength. Total sales volumes are up by 0.3% month-to-month in [...]

The Empire State Manufacturing Index of General Business Conditions for September eased to 2.0 from 4.8 in August. A reading of 3.9 had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. A steady 27% of respondents reported that [...]

Import prices improved 0.2% (-1.8% y/y) during July following a 1.1% June decline... Export prices also rose 0.2% (-0.9% y/y) in July after June's 0.6% decline.......... The import and export price series can be found in Haver's [...]

Total business inventories rose 0.4% (4.8% y/y) in July versus an unrevised zero change in June and a 0.3% May increase. Total business sales edged up 0.3% (1.3% y/y) after holding steady in June, revised from 0.1% . The inventory-to- [...]

The EMU trade and current account positions shifted to post larger surpluses in July. Exports rose and imports were dead flat on the month. The trade surplus rose to 18.96 billion euros while the current account surplus moved sharply [...]

Consumer spending remains on a positive track. Total retail sales rose 0.4% (4.1% y/y) during August following a 0.8% July gain, revised from a 0.7%. June's increase was revised to 0.4% from 0.3%. A 0.2% August gain had been expected [...]

Import prices fell a greater-than-expected 0.5% during August (-2.0% year-on-year), following a downwardly revised 0.1% gain in July (was 0.2%). The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected a 0.4% decline in August. These figures are [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell 15,000 to 204,000 (-1.9% year-on-year) during the week ending September 7 from a slightly upwardly-revised reading of 219,000 in the previous week (was 217,000). This is the lowest level [...]