Economy in Brief: 2012

Italy’s retail sales volume picked up in January rising by 0.5% after a long period of weakness. If we look at monthly retail sales volumes, we have to go back to January of 2007 to find a prior 12-month period in which sales volumes [...]

More of a depressing effect on mortgage loan applications from higher interest rates was evident last week. The index of total mortgage applications fell 2.7% to 663.7 (+36.8% y/y), down for the seventh straight week. Fewer [...]

New orders for durable goods rebounded 2.2% during February following a 3.6% January slump, originally reported as -4.0%. Consensus expectations had been for a 2.7% rise. The increase was roughly consistent with the ISM orders figure [...]

A number of surveys relating to consumer confidence were released today. Consumers in Finland, France and Germany in Europe and in Korea in Asia showed some signs of increasing their propensities to consume in March. The latest data [...]

The Conference Board's Index of Consumer Confidence fell in March to 70.2 from a revised 71.6, last month reported as 70.8. The latest two figures were the highest since last February and were up nearly three-quarters from the October [...]

Pump prices for regular gasoline rose another five cents last week to $3.92 per gallon, their highest since last May. Reduced seasonal demand typically fosters lower gasoline prices this time of year, but they haven't followed the [...]

Whatever sign of improvement there may be in the latest home sales figures surely reflects price bargains. The seasonally adjusted Case-Shiller 20-City Home Price Index fell 0.8% in January following an unrevised 1.1% December [...]

The IFO institute reported today that confidence in the German business community was essentially unchanged in March. The headline series, the Business Climate rose 0.1 point from 109.7 (2005=100) in February to 109.8 in March. The [...]