Economy in Brief: 2016

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reported that its Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Activity at the company level fell to 17.5 in March. The measure has been declining since early last year. The expectations index for general [...]

The U.S. House Price Index from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) during January increased 0.5% for the third consecutive month. The annual rate of increase has been fairly steady near 6.0% since 2014. Prices were strongest in [...]

The chart puts the evolution on the EMU-area PMIs in their proper context. Last month the two sector indices fell sharply. This month there is a partial rebound with services rebounding slightly more and manufacturing showing a very [...]

The chart in this article shows that the euro area current account surplus is still quite large. However, in the table data, we see month-to-month it is lower and that over three months it is lower and over 12 months it is lower. The [...]

The National Association of Realtors reported that existing home sales declined 7.1% to 5.080 million (SAAR, +2.2% y/y) from an unrevised 5.470 million in January. It was the lowest level of sales in three months. Sales of 5.36 [...]

The National Activity Index from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago fell to -0.29 during February. It followed a positive 0.41 in January which had been the first positive reading since July. The three-month moving average remained [...]

The U.S. Current Account Deficit deepened to $484.1 billion during 2015 from $389.5 billion in 2014. It was the largest deficit since 2008 and amounted to 2.8% of GDP. For the fourth quarter alone, the deficit eased to $125.3 billion [...]

Germany's PPI fell in February and it has been falling with great persistence. There have been 10 month-to-month declines in the PPI in the last 12 months and it has been 13 months since the German PPI has increased month-to-month at [...]