Economy in Brief: 2011

Despite severe winter storms last month, home building activity improved. Total housing starts rose 14.6% in January to 596,000, the highest level since September. The increase followed a 5.1% December decline that was deeper than the [...]

The National Association of Home Builders reported that their February index of housing market activity held at 16 for the fourth consecutive month; the average for all of 2010. The latest figure remained above the all-time low of 8 [...]

The early reports of GDP headlines are presented in the table above. EMU GDP is a touch weaker than had been expected. While UK growth was the first to disappoint, the UK today posted a 0.7% rise in its LEI for December clearly the UK [...]

The rate of business inventory accumulation picked back up in December. The 0.8% gain was double the 0.4% November increase, revised from 0.2%. During the last three months, inventories rose at an 8.0% annual rate versus the Q3 peak [...]

The February results of the ZEW survey of some 267 analysts and institutional investor in Germany show small improvements in their appraisal of current conditions and their expectations for the next six months. Their expectations for [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that its Empire State Factory Index of General Business Conditions improved further to 15.43, the highest since June of last year. The figure roughly equaled Consensus expectations for [...]

U.S. import prices showed broad-based strength. During January, prices jumped another 1.5% after an upwardly revised 1.2% December increase, initially reported as 1.1%. The increase was stronger than Consensus expectations for a 0.8% [...]

January consumer spending lost forward momentum. Retail and food service sales rose 0.3% last month after a 0.5% December increase that was revised from 0.6%. Sales have risen for seven consecutive months; however, the latest was the [...]