Economy in Brief

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve reported that its General Factory Sector Business Conditions Index rose to 22.9 during September following an August decline to 11.9. The rise compared to expectations for a lesser increase to 15.0 in [...]

The U.S. current account deficit fell to $101.5 billion during Q2 2018 from $121.7 billion in Q1. It was the smallest deficit since Q4 2015 and compared to $103.5 billion expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. As a percent [...]

The UK inflation rate rose unexpectedly in August headline inflation zoomed to a 2.7% annual rate, up from 2.5% just last month. The rise in inflation was unexpected. Core inflation lags the release of headline inflation. Core [...]

New home building activity improved last month. Total housing starts rose 9.2% during August (9.4% y/y) to 1.282 million (AR) from 1.174 million in July, revised from 1.168 million. That followed an 11.4% June decline to 1.177 [...]

The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo remained unchanged during September at 67. August's figure was unrevised and the index remained below its December 2017 high of 74. [...]

Canadian factory orders fell for the second month in a row in July but because of an order surge back in May the three-month growth rate continues to record a solid 6.4% rate of growth. Unfilled orders were flat in July but had risen [...]

Gasoline prices were $2.84 per gallon last week (7.9% y/y) and have been little changed since May. Haver Analytics constructs factors to adjust for the marked seasonal variation in prices. The seasonally-adjusted gasoline price rose [...]

The British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) today announced cutting its outlook for the UK economy. It seems to be more pessimistic than it was in the second quarter when the (above) survey was conducted. At that time the various survey [...]