Economy in Brief: April 2016

On a day IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde had chosen to rebuke the industrialized nations on their need to do more to stimulate global growth, German industrial orders have fallen largely because of weakness in orders overseas. [...]

The Composite Index of Nonmanufacturing Sector Business from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) increased to 54.5 during March versus an unrevised 53.4 in February. It was the highest reading in three months. Consensus [...]

The U.S. foreign trade deficit increased to $47.1 billion during February from $45.9 billion in January, revised from $45.7 billion. It was the deepest trade deficit since August. A deficit of $46.2 billion was expected in the Action [...]

New orders in the manufacturing sector declined 1.7% during February (+0.1% y/y) and reversed the prior month's 1.2% increase. The decline reflected a little-revised 3.0% drop in durable goods orders. These orders were pulled lower by [...]

The Labor Market Conditions Index from the Federal Reserve Board includes 19 indicators of labor market activity, covering the broad categories of unemployment and underemployment. These include jobs, workweeks, wages, vacancies, [...]

Deflation in PPI prices is very widespread with few exceptions. The pace is getting more deeply into negative territory across the original 11 EMU member countries. Prices are falling period-to-period in all 44 of the country level [...]

Total sales of light vehicles during March fell 5.5% from February, the fourth decline in five months. At 16.57 million units (SAAR), sales were at the lowest level in thirteen months. Auto sales declined 6.4% to 6.91 million units [...]

The value of construction put-in-place fell 0.5% during February following a 2.1% rise in January, revised from 1.5%. A 0.1% increase was expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. During the last three months, activity grew an [...]