Economy in Brief: April 2009

Amidst the worldwide economic recession, the U.S. foreign trade deficit fell further during February to the lowest level since November of 1999. The deficit of $26.0B narrowed from the little revised January level of $36.2B. Imports [...]

Though they may be topping, initial claims for unemployment insurance certainly remain high. At 654,000 last week that was down from an upwardly revised 675,000 during the prior week. However, the level was up 82.7% from one year ago. [...]

UK’s industrial output index fell again making it twelve straight months of decline. There is a slight let up in the pace of decline in IP as the growth rate’s declining profile at the three month tenor shows signs of abating (see [...]

The growth rates for German industrial orders are not getting progressively worse, but they still are bad and the three-month growth rate still is worse than the six month growth rate. There may be a hint or whiff of slowing down the [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported another increase in mortgage applications. The 4.7% w/w increase last week pulled them up by nearly three-quarters from the year ago level and to nearly their highest for this year. Fueled by [...]

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported another increase in mortgage applications. The 4.7% w/w increase last week pulled them up by nearly three-quarters from the year ago level and to nearly their highest for this year. Fueled by [...]

The Bank of Australia reduced its benchmark interest rate from 3.25% to 3.00% today. This marks a 525 basis point reduction from the 8.25% rate in June, 2008. Growth in the Australian economy virtually came to a halt in the third [...]

For February the Federal Reserve reported that consumer credit outstanding fell $7.4B. As a result of the decline, which was the fifth since July, credit growth slowed to just 1.1% year-to-year which was the weakest since late 1992. [...]