Economy in Brief

Import prices declined 0.4% during June (+4.3%) following a 0.9% rise in May, which was revised from 0.6%. A 0.1% uptick had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. These figures are not seasonally adjusted. Weakness in [...]

French retail sales rebounded in June after falling for two consecutive months. Gains earlier in the year in the February and March were quite strong, but April brought a deep decline; May sales were lower- but essentially flat- and [...]

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 [...]