Economy in Brief: March 2009

The earlier souring of consumers' moods seems to have stabilized. The University of Michigan reported that its reading of consumer sentiment held steady in early March with its February level. In fact, sentiment has moved roughly [...]

U.S. import prices fell another 0.2% during February, dragged lower by the worldwide recession. The generalized decline, which offset the influence from higher oil prices, followed a little-revised 1.2% January drop. During the last [...]

January's U.S. foreign trade deficit narrowed again to its shallowest level since the summer of 2002. The deficit of $36.0B narrowed from the unrevised December figure of $39.0B. Lower oil prices and the U.S. recession acted to reduce [...]

January's U.S. foreign trade deficit narrowed again to its shallowest level since the summer of 2002. The deficit of $36.0B narrowed from the unrevised December figure of $39.0B. Lower oil prices and the U.S. recession acted to reduce [...]

For the year as a whole, total credit market borrowing grew just 5.5% which was the weakest advance since 1993. And all sectors pulled back their borrowing -- except the Federal government whose liabilities grew at a 24.2% rate, [...]

Reduced inventory accumulation has played a large role in the current downturn in economic activity. Business inventories dropped 1.1% m/m during January and the decline marked the fifth consecutive reduction. Over just the last three [...]

Among large EU economies that have reported results, Germany shows the fastest dropping industrial production over three-months as well as in the quarter-to-date. Its 8.1% plunge in MFG IP is right in line with the reported 8% drop in [...]

The U.S. job market continues to worsen. Continuing claims for unemployment insurance reached another record level as they jumped by 193,000. At 5,317,000, the level of continuing claims was nearly double that of last March. The [...]