Economy in Brief: 2019

Retail sales in Japan scored an increase in March after two consecutive monthly declines. Still, the just-completed first quarter is showing sales fall at a 4.2% annual rate. The sequential growth rates show that sales have been [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance decreased to 192,000 (-15.4% year-on-year) during the week ended April 13 Continuing claims for unemployment insurance declined 63,000 to 1.653 million (-10.7% y/y) in the week ending April [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City indicated that its index of regional manufacturing sector business activity declined to five in April from 10 in March. It remained down versus the high of 26 reached last May. The ISM-Adjusted [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance decreased to 192,000 (-15.4% year-on-year) during the week ended April 13 Continuing claims for unemployment insurance declined 63,000 to 1.653 million (-10.7% y/y) in the week ending April [...]

The U.K. distributive trades retail survey is generally more upbeat than the wholesale survey in April. That is true for the current readings as well as for the forward-looking expectations. The difference in the assessment, [...]

New orders for durable goods increased 2.7% (2.3% y/y) during March after a 1.1% February decline, revised from -1.6%. A 0.8% increase had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. A 7.0% (1.2% y/y) strengthening in [...]

Initial claims for unemployment insurance jumped 37,000 to 230,000 (9.5% year-on-year) during the week ended April 20 from a slightly upwardly-revised 50-year low of 193,000 in the previous week (was 192,000). The Action Economics [...]

The German IFO gauge fell month-to-month to 6.5 in April from 8.7 in March in its diffusion presentation. The headline was last weaker for one month in February 2016. It was weaker for a series of four months in a row ending December [...]