Economy in Brief: May 2008

The consumer price index (CPI-U) rose 0.2% last month, down from the 0.3% March increase and less than the 0.3% rise that was generally expected. Year-to-year, prices rose 3.9% which was off the earlier highs of 4.4%. Less food & [...]

Rising inflation has constrained the Bank of England's monetary policy in its attempt to lower rates to stimulate the slowing economy. After cutting its policy rate from 5.75% to 5.00% on April 10, it held the rate steady on May 8, [...]

Total business inventories grew just 0.1% during March. The gain was less than the expected 0.4% rise and the 0.5% February increase was little revised. The annualized three month growth in inventories backed off slightly to 6.6% from [...]

Overall import prices surged last month. The 1.8% gain was right in line with expectations and it followed an even stronger 2.9% surge during March. Together the increases were the strongest on record. Petroleum prices jumped 4.4% [...]

The International Council of Shopping Centers reported that chain store sales fell 1.0% last week after the prior period's 0.2% dip.

U.S. retail sales fell an expected 0.2% last month after an unrevised 0.2% March increase. These latest two months' sales point up the recent weakness in consumer spending. The April sales level was down 0.8% from its peak last [...]

U.S. retail sales fell an expected 0.2% last month after an unrevised 0.2% March increase. These latest two months' sales point up the recent weakness in consumer spending. The April sales level was down 0.8% from its peak last [...]

As it usually does in April, the U.S. government ran a budget surplus of $159.3B. The figure was down slightly, however, from last year's unusually large April surplus of $177.7B. Based on expectations formed by Public Debt [...]