Economy in Brief: July 2019

The Producer Price Index for final demand rose 0.1% during June (1.7% y/y) for the second straight month. The rise matched expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Producer prices excluding food & energy increased 0.3% [...]

EMU industrial production jumped in May. After falling for straight four months, EMU IP jumped in January 2019, then was flat in February, fell for two more months in a row, and now it is up by 0.9% month-to-month logging only its [...]

The National Association of Realtors reported that its Mortgage Fixed Rate Index of Home Affordability declined 1.4% during May (+5.6% y/y). Affordability stood 29.5% below the peak level during January 2013. The fixed rate mortgage [...]

The Producer Price Index for final demand rose 0.1% during June (1.7% y/y) for the second straight month. The rise matched expectations in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Producer prices excluding food & energy increased 0.3% [...]

The U.S. Treasury Department reported that the federal government ran an $8.5 billion budget deficit during June compared to a $74.9 billion deficit one year earlier. A $6.4 billion deficit had been expected in the Action Economics [...]

The chart makes the point best on the problem of how to interpret the trends for inflation in the largest EMU nations. Going back to 2014 or 2016, we find inflation has been rising across all the countries in the chart. From about [...]

Overall retail pricing power remained muted last month, but strength emerged in core prices. The Consumer Price Index edged 0.1% higher (1.6% y/y) during June, the same as it did in May. These remained the smallest increases since [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance decreased 13,000 to 209,000 (-1.4% year-on-year) during the week ending July 6 from a slightly upwardly-revised reading of 222,000 in the previous week (was 221,000). While this is the lowest [...]