Economy in Brief: 2017

Inflation in the EMU, in any of its largest four economies, overall inflation, core inflation, or in Germany, inflation excluding energy is accelerating. The 12-month pace exceeds the previous year's 12-month pace, the six-month pace [...]

Initial unemployment insurance claims declined to 223,000 during the week ended February 25 from 242,000 claims in the week prior, revised from 244,000. The latest level was the lowest since March 1973. Expectations had been for [...]

Total sales of light vehicles were little changed m/m during February (-0.7% y/y) at 17.58 million units (SAAR), according to the Autodata Corporation. Passenger car sales eased 0.8% (-11.5% y/y) to 6.53 million units. Domestically- [...]

What jumps out at you in the table of manufacturing PMIs ranked on their performance since January 2012 is the abject weakness in Mexico. The chart at the top shows that the Mexican manufacturing PMI is moving opposite to the U.S. and [...]

Industrial sector activity remains on a strong footing. The ISM composite index of factory sector activity increased to 57.7 during February from an unrevised 56.0 in January. It was highest reading since August 2014. Expectations [...]

The value of construction put-in-place fell 1.0% in January (+3.1% y/y). This decline did follow upward revisions to December and November, with December now up 0.1% versus -0.2% reported initially, and November up 1.5%, revised from [...]

Disposable personal income, after adjustment for higher prices, fell 0.2% during January following two months of 0.1% increase. It was the first decline since March 2015. The y/y increase fell to 2.0%, and compared to 4.4% y/y growth [...]

The Chicago Purchasing Managers Business Barometer Index recovered to 57.4 in February after a decline to 50.3 in January. The latest figure was the highest since January 2015. The February reading exceeded expectations for 53.0 in [...]