Economy in Brief: 2018

As income growth remains firm, individuals are using the money to rebuild savings. Personal income rose 0.4% (3.7% y/y) during February for the third consecutive month. The gain matched expectations in the Action Economics Forecast [...]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported that pending home sales increased 3.1% (-4.1% y/y) in February to an index level of 107.5 (2001=100). The gain followed a downwardly revised 5.0% January decline. Winter storms and a [...]

The look-ahead consumer climate metric from GfK for Germany shows an uptick in April. Confidence sits in the top 2 percentile of its historic rank of all confidence measures for Germany since early-2002. The components for the GfK [...]

In the third estimate of Q4'17 real GDP, the U.S. economy grew 2.9% (AR), more than 2.5% estimated in the second report and 2.6% in the advance estimate. It followed a 3.2% Q3 rise and a 3.1% Q2 gain. Growth picked up from Q4-to-Q4 to [...]

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index fell 1.8% during March (+2.2% y/y) to 127.7 following a 4.6% increase during February to 130.0, revised from 130.8. A level of 131.0 had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast [...]

EU Commission indexes for the EMU area turned down broadly, falling for the straight third month. The five sector indexes saw declines in three sectors (industrial, retail, and services), a gain in one (construction), and unchanged [...]

Retail gasoline prices increased to $2.65 per gallon last week (14.4% y/y) and moved to the highest level since early-September. Haver Analytics constructs factors adjusting for the seasonal variation in gasoline pump prices. The [...]

According to the Eurozone Economic Outlook that is jointly published by the IFO Institute, Italy's statistical office Istat and the KOF Swiss Economic Institute, EMU area GDP is projected to grow 0.6% each in the first and second [...]