Economy in Brief: 2015

After rising earlier this month,gasoline prices posted a 4 cent decline last week to $2.45 cents per gallon. Nevertheless, prices remained 40 cents higher (20.0%) than the low seven weeks ago. Despite the gains, prices remained well [...]

The Composite Housing Market Index from the National Association of Home Builders-Wells Fargo declined to 53 in March (+15.2% y/y) from an unrevised 55 in February. It was the lowest figure since July. During the last ten years, there [...]

Industrial production ticked 0.1% higher during February following declines in three of the four previous months. January production fell 0.3%, earlier reported as a 0.2% rise. The latest gain was helped by cold winter temperatures [...]

Consumer confidence in Japan has averaged a reading of 39.4 over the last 12 months. This month's pick-up to 40.7 in February from 39.1 in January barely improves on its one-year average. Moreover, the three-month and six-month [...]

The Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions fell 6.90 during March after declining to 7.78 in February. The readings from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York remained well below the 27.41 peak reached last [...]

The Federal Reserve's financial accounts data (formerly known as the "flow of funds") for Q4 show total credit market borrowing at $2.47 trillion annual rate, up from $2.21 trillion in Q3. For 2014 as a whole, borrowing was $2.10 [...]

The overall Final Demand Producer Price Index fell 0.5% during February (-0.6% y/y) following an unrevised 0.8% January decline. A 0.2% rise was expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Prices excluding food & energy also [...]

French sales volumes recovered in February, rising by 1.2% after two straight monthly declines in excess of 1%. In the last four months, French sales volumes have moved by more than 1% in each month: twice up and twice down. This is [...]