Introducing

Robert Brusca

Robert A. Brusca is Chief Economist of Fact and Opinion Economics, a consulting firm he founded in Manhattan. He has been an economist on Wall Street for over 25 years. He has visited central banking and large institutional clients in over 30 countries in his career as an economist. Mr. Brusca was a Divisional Research Chief at the Federal Reserve Bank of NY (Chief of the International Financial markets Division), a Fed Watcher at Irving Trust and Chief Economist at Nikko Securities International. He is widely quoted and appears in various media. Mr. Brusca holds an MA and Ph.D. in economics from Michigan State University and a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan. His research pursues his strong interests in non aligned policy economics as well as international economics. FAO Economics’ research targets investors to assist them in making better investment decisions in stocks, bonds and in a variety of international assets. The company does not manage money and has no conflicts in giving economic advice.

Publications by Robert Brusca

Global| Jul 24 2024
The PMI Plot Thickens...
The unweighted average among the 8 units reporting in the table improved month-to-month. The composite average from 12-months to 6-months, to 3-months, gets progressively stronger by a small amount. But the July value for aggregate data is below the recent (lagging) 3-month average that is constructed from hard data from June backward. As a result of these data entanglements, the trend for this group is quite flat and hard to pin down.

However, there are trends and events of importance in this month’s report- especially regarding the performance of the U.S. services sector that need attention.

The progressive average shows strengthening from an average over 12 months, to six months, to three months for both aggregated manufacturing and services sectors. Yet, both services and manufacturing are weaker in July than over their respective previous three-month averages.

Month-to-month changes show a split situation in July; 12 of 24 sector readings are weaker and 12 are stronger. Among these, five total-indexes (or composite indexes) are stronger month-to-month while three are weaker. But in June many more composites weakened and in May many more strengthened.

The queue percentile standings that position the monthly PMIs in a string of data back to January 2020, show only nine of 24 rankings above a standing of 50% which marks the median for each data-series on this timeline. Of those nine, three are India, while Japan and the U.S. account for another two each. The EMU and Germany each have service sector standings above the 50% mark.

The U.S. service sector reading headlines this report Interestingly, the U.S. ranks above 50% for its composite and for services. Services show a strengthening in each of the last three months. This is huge! It stands in stark contrast to astonishing weakness reported by the ISM services report in June. With the U.S. strength in services this month reported by S&P, there is no squaring those two reports as have a timing difference or some other technicality. That possibility is gone. They are simply different and quite different. In fact, the S&P service sector ranking for the U.S. in July has a 69-percentile standing- a standing in the top one-third of historic observations since January 2020. In contrast, on this same timeline the ISM services gauge is the third weakest observation over those 54 months. These are vastly different pictures of the performance of the U.S. services sector, an especially important sector for the U.S., for the Fed, and for global monetary policy. All eyes are on the Fed with inflation having notched lower again and the Fed looking for confirmation of a lower inflation trend to pull the rate-cut trigger. Inflation is most intense in the U.S. services sector. But it broke lower in June. Is the services sector weak, and will inflation continue lower? Or is the services sector strong, and will service sector inflation rise and remain stubborn? We are looking at severely conflicting data. The ISM services diffusion reading in June has a value of 48.8; that compares to a reading of 55.3 in the S&P survey and now to 56.0 in the S&P July survey.

Not only do opinions on the economy clash but so do data that pertain to the same phenomena… That is not reassuring.
by:Robert Brusca
|in:Economy in Brief
Denmark| Jul 23 2024
Danish Confidence Continues Its Lull
Danish confidence continues to post negative values in July. The July confidence reading is slightly worse than in June, but its negative reading is not as deeply negative as in May, although it comes in right on its three-month average. Sequentially the average readings for Danish confidence are improving from -23.5 on its 12-month average of a year ago, to a -8.9 average over the most recent 12 months, to a -6.7 average over the recent six months, and to average -5.4 over the last three months.

Danish trend The chart shows a relatively rapid improvement in confidence from late-2022 to mid-2023. Since then, the improving gradient has been less steep but still shows steady, if not monotonic, improvement. This month’s backtracking is not unusual as there have been five monthly backtracks over the last 12 months even as the index improved by 4.7 points on balance, an average monthly gain of about 0.4 points per month. This is normal volatility, not at all unusual.

The chart also plots the Danish figure against the Sentix gauge for the EMU. That relationship shows a tracking of Denmark with the Sentix gauge, with Sentix being the more volatile reading. Currently both Denmark and Sentix are on improving trends and each have negative readings.

Environmental standings The Danish data show readings for confidence and a separate set of readings pertaining to the environment. The environmental readings are mostly higher than the percentile standings of other conditions and their future values except for inflation. Inflation expectations in Denmark are still elevated.

Notably the environment shows standings for most environmental variables in their mid- to upper-fiftieth percentiles leaving the rankings moderately above their period medians (medians occur at a rank of 50). The exception here is a weak 17.3 percentile standing for the favorability of the time to purchase, but that improves to a 57-percentile standing on the outlook for the next 12 months.

Confidence Consumer confidence itself has a ranking at its 16th percentile with weaker readings for the 12-month outlook that for the last 12-months for the components ‘financial situation’ as well as for the ‘general economy.’ The outlook standings for these two components have values in the 7th percentile (Financial Situation) to the nearly 18th percentile (General Economy), both quite weak.

The unemployment trend for the next 12 months has been fluctuating at a value of +7. That has a 65.5 percentile standing. That puts expectations for unemployment moderately above its historic median, which is slightly uncomfortable.

Inflation expectations are lower on the outlook than the look-back over 12 months, but both have elevated standings with the backward-looking standing at 87.6% and the outlook still high at 70.9%.
by:Robert Brusca
|in:Economy in Brief
Belgium| Jul 22 2024
Belgian Consumer Index Skims Along Further Below Zero
The National Bank of Belgium Consumer Confidence Indicator fell to -5 in July from -1 in June. It stands one point above where it stood in January 2020 before COVID struck. Since the early-1990s, the index has been lower than its current value about 59% of the time, marking it as above its historic median by a modest amount, near the upper one trend of its historic queue of values.

The assessment of the economic situation for the next 12 months deteriorated slightly in July, as it fell by one point. The backward-looking assessment by comparison worsened by 3 points compared to June. The outlook has a weak 29.6 percentile standing.

Price trends show more inflation ahead is expected while looking backward participants see slightly less pressure on a month-to-month comparison. The look-ahead on inflation has a 20.2 percentile standing, marking it as low historically.

The look-ahead on unemployment is higher in July, rising to 19 from 12 in June. That index number on expectations has a 41-percentile standing, below its historic median (the median occurs at a ranking of 50). While it is up month-to-month, it is lower than the May reading of 23 but higher than the year-ago reading of 15. Unemployment expectations are somewhat volatile and close to historic norms.

The financial situation is little-changed month-to-month. The next 12-month assessment improved by 3 points month-to-month, the look backward shows conditions worsened in July compared to June but only by a tick, and the current appraisal remained dead flat at a reading of 23. Unfortunately, the look-ahead, which is most important, produces the lowest standing among these three horizons. The look ahead rank standing has been weaker about one-third of the time, the look backward at the last 12 months has been better only about 30% of the time, and the current assessment is at a strong 89.6 percentile standing. While the current situation is quite strong, the outlook is poor. There is a good deal of let-down between how things appear now, and what is expected for the financial situation ahead. That is disconcerting.

Household savings over the next 12 months worsened to a reading of 16 in July from 20 in June. This reading has an 85.3 percentile standing. The assessment on the favorability of the environment to save has a 91.4 percentile standing. That response improved by one tick in the month.
by:Robert Brusca
|in:Economy in Brief
United Kingdom| Jul 19 2024
U.K. Retail Sales Step Back in June as Confidence Continues to Climb
U.K. retail sales in June fell by 1.3% after rising by 3.3% in May and falling by 2% month-to-month in April. The performance of two key industries, the food, beverages & tobacco complex, as well as clothing & footwear follows the same pattern with June declines, May increases, and April drops. April showers may have brought May flowers but then June sales soured.

Sequentially U.K. retail sales rise by 0.6% over 12 months, accelerate to an 8.3% annual rate over six months, but then decline at a 0.7% annual rate over three months.

Real sales Retail sales volumes, which refer to retail sales adjusted for price, show the same pattern as the overall retail sales, declining by 1.2% in June, rising by 2.9% in May, and then falling by 1.5% in April. U.K. retail sales volumes fall by 0.2% over 12 months, accelerate to a 7.6% annual rate of increase over six months and then slow but continue to rise at a 0.4% annual rate over three months. The retail sales pattern is not clear on whether acceleration or even growth is going to endure because the 3-month growth rate is so low, but there has been a strong improvement over six months and retail sales volumes numbers show only a slight decline over 12 months. On balance, this retail sales pattern is consistent with the idea that U.K. retail sales are stabilizing and are ready to continue to advance. Certainly, the performance of consumer confidence suggests that that's what's waiting in the wings; however, the trends themselves are indeterminate.

Car registrations One volatile element of consumer spending is spending on passenger cars. Passenger car registrations had risen strongly for two months in a row, gaining 3.1% in June and 3.3% in May. Those two very solid and strong months, however, follow an even larger decline of 8.8% in April. As a result, passenger car registrations reveal a decelerating profile based on the sequential growth rates. Over 12 months passenger car registrations rise at a 2.4% pace, over six months they fall at a 4.7% annual rate, and over three months they fall at an 11.1% annual rate. The persistent decline in spending on this big-ticket item is a bit unsettling, but on the other hand, the 3-month growth rate gets all its weakness from April whereas June and May show a sharp rebound after that April decline. Even though we're looking at sequential deterioration, it is sequential deterioration with some optimistic results being reported in the recent two months.

CBI surveys and confidence U.K. retail surveys on the month from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) show sales for the time of year with a -41 diffusion assessment in June compared to a +22 in May. The volume of orders year-over-year register a net diffusion reading of -3 in June compared to +38 in May. Both those series posted negative numbers in April. The ups and downs of the CBI series follow the ups and downs of both real and nominal retail sales in the most recent three months. The CBI survey of retail sales for time of year does not offer a clear pattern either. When we look at the change from 12-months to 6-months, to 3-months, there is no clear trend. However, over each horizon, ‘sales for time of year’ post a negative number. The ‘volume of orders year-over-year’ logs a negative number over 12 months but then two positive numbers over three months and six months. But there is no steady progression in place so as the trend indicator there's no clarity in the volume of orders. Over three and six months, both readings are now positive numbers. Consumer confidence has a positive reading in April, May, and June that also shows consistently positive readings over three months, six months, and 12 months.

Quarter to date The quarter-to-date metrics, which are at this point for completed Q2 in the U.K., show declines in nominal sales in food and clothing industries as well as a decline in retail sales volumes and a decline for passenger car registrations. CBI retail sales for the time of year and CBI order volumes year-over-year both post negative numbers although GfK consumer confidence shows an increase. The second quarter was not particularly good for retail sales or their indicators in the U.K.

Growth has been quite weak In addition, the far-right hand column gives us the standings of the indicators and the growth rates on data back to early 2000. On that basis, sales have been weaker than they currently are only 10.8% of the time, although real volumes are holding up better: they have been weaker 28% of the time. Passenger car registrations have a standing at 56.5% which means they are above their median and have been stronger less than 45% of the time. The CBI survey has continued to spin out weak numbers with the retail sales ‘for time of year’ lower than the current reading only 5.4% of the time historically. The CBI ‘volume of orders year-over-year’ historically has been weaker only 26.1% of the time. Consumer confidence is closer to neutral with a 45.1 percentile standing a data back to early 2000s.
by:Robert Brusca
|in:Economy in Brief
Europe| Jul 18 2024
Passenger Car Registrations Are Still Dead-in-the-Water
The chart of new passenger car registrations provides the best overview of the performance auto registrations and registrations in Europe through June of this year. Based on the numbers, there is a gain of 7.1% month-to-month in June, but there is also a decline of 10.8% in May and that follows an increase of 11.8% in April. The path of passenger car registrations is basically well sketched out by the head movement of a bobble-head doll attached to the dashboard of a ‘57 Chevy driving over a cobblestone street. And the chart is clear that there has been a lot of up and down in registrations, but the trend has been still very flat amid all the choppiness.

Cyclical behavior Vehicle registrations had begun a peaking action before COVID struck, but then the COVID episode took registrations down very sharply. They rebounded quickly and sharply post-COVID, but that didn't last very long. Russia's invasion of Ukraine took its toll on the outlook and on sentiment. As a result, another downtrend took place. That bottomed early in 2022 and there was a rebound; that rebound had pretty much run its course by mid-2023; from that point forward, we have simply been looking at this very volatile sideways performance with monthly registrations going back and forth, up and down but creating no trend.

Year-on-year growth clashes with volatility Still, over 12 months total European registrations were up by 3.1%. If we calculate that from a three-month moving average just to try to stabilize the calculation, it moves up slightly to 4.2%. The year-over-year comparison shows increases in registrations in each of the five countries detailed on the table. Registrations are strongest year-over-year in Italy where they rise 15.2%; they rise by 5.7% in Germany and by 5.1% in France. Registrations rise by a lesser amount in Spain and the U.K. as Spanish registrations are up by 2% over 12 months and U.K. registrations are up by 2.4%. Here note that the three strongest year-on-year gains are France, Italy, and Germany that had year-ago results that fell month-to-month or were only a tick higher by 0.1%. Spain and Italy, in contrast log month-on-month changes a year ago that rose 3% to 4%. So volatility haunts even the year-over-year calculations.

Even Broader calculations The big broad calculation that looks at the percent change of the most recent 12-month average against the previous nonoverlapping 12-month average shows European registrations up by 7.4% while registrations among the five countries detailed on the table show an 11.2% gain in the U.K., a 9.7% gain in Italy, a 10.7% gain in France, and a 7.7% gain in Spain; Germany puts in the weakest performance having registrations up by just 4.7%.

Performance since COVID For the sake of perspective, I also calculate the percent change in registrations compared to January 2020 before COVID struck. On that basis, European total registrations are lower by 12.7%. U.K. registrations are lower by 18%, Spanish registrations are lower by 10.7%, Italian registrations are lower by 5%, and French registrations are lower by 4.4%. Registrations in Germany are lowered by just 1.8%. Registrations in Germany have retained their level better than any other countries in the group.
by:Robert Brusca
|in:Economy in Brief
Europe| Jul 17 2024
Core HICP Shows Building Upward Pressure
Headline inflation in the euro area appears to be disciplined as it rose by 0.1% in June after rising 0.2% in May. Headline inflation is up 2.5% over 12 months, up to a 2.9% annual rate over six months but then simmers back down to a 1.8% annual rate over three months. There's some volatility there, but the three-month inflation rate is reassuring. However, is that what the ECB is really looking at?

Rotten in the core? The core inflation rate is an entirely different animal in June. It rose by 0.4% in June, it rose by 0.3% in May, and it rose by 0.4% in April. None of these month-to-month increases is acceptable. Looking at the performance of the core rate sequentially, the core is up by 2.9% over 12 months, it's up at a 3.2% annual rate over six months, and then it accelerates further to a 4.1% pace over three months. Each of these profile rates, taken on its own, is too-high; but the sequence taken together is even more disturbing because it shows that core inflation is too high and accelerating, from just short of 3% to just over 4% as the venue shifts from a 12-month calculation to a three-month calculation.

Inflation in the large economies of the EMU and in the U.K. The four largest economies in the monetary union show headline inflation is generally not behaving. Germany, France, and Italy each show that inflation is increasing over three months compared to six months; while in two of those cases the six-month inflation rate fell compared to the 12-month inflation rate, the three-month inflation rate in each of these countries is higher than its 12-month counterpart. The three-month inflation rate in Germany runs at 5.4% compounded, in France at 3.5%, and an Italy at 3%. Among the largest four economies, the only one with inflation behaving is Spain where the 12-month inflation rate is 3.6%; then it drops to 2.9% over six months and logs a three-month pace of inflation at 1.7%. This is another disturbing sequence of numbers for the ECB. By comparison, nonmember U.K. shows headline inflation low and decelerating.

Core inflation is slightly excessive Core inflation shows inflation has accelerated in France and Italy relative to its 12-month pace. For France, the three-month core inflation rate is at 2.6%, up from 1.9% over 12 months; in Italy, the core is at a 2.8% pace over three months, up from 2.1% over 12 months. Spain shows inflation behaving at 2.1% over three months compared to 3% over 12 months. Germany shows ex-energy inflation behaving at 2.1% over three months, compared to 2.6% over 12 months. Nonmember U.K. shows a core inflation pace up to 3.6% over three months after a six-month lull and a 3.5% pace over 12 months.

Role and goal of the ECB Of course, the ECB targets inflation for the entire European Monetary Union (EMU) and is not particularly interested in the inflation performance in any specific country compared to the performance of the union. However, since we have country specific information, just as it's interesting to look at that inflation as at inflation across commodity categories. When we do this, we find that inflation is either not well behaved in its headline or not behaved in its core form. So the details are not confirming that overall inflation is behaving the way it ought to. And, as noted above, when we look at the headline, inflation appears to be behaving, but when we look at the EMU-wide core rate, which excludes the volatile food and energy components, we see a very different picture. The core is accelerating and running at a 4.1% annual rate over three months, approximately twice the target that the ECB has for inflation.

So where do the ECB policy trade-offs stand? These calculations raise question marks about whether the ECB is really close to cutting interest rates in this cycle or not. There's been a lot of talk about cutting interest rates; there's a lot of talk from the U.S. about cutting interest rates as well. We include the U.K. inflation rates in this table and U.K. core inflation appears to be stuck, stubborn, and possibly even accelerating. Having central banks that want to engage in a policy in which they cut interest rates, puts policy in a dangerous spot. They need to know cuts are fully supported by the underlying inflation dynamics. Neither the U.K. nor the ECB seem to be on very solid footing on that score. In the case of the U.S., inflation is beginning to trend in that direction but it hasn't firmly established the trend for the headline and core especially not for CPI as well as PCE rates. Of course, when we switch our gears to talk about the Federal Reserve, the targeted inflation rate is the PCE and not the CPI. Fed Chair Powell in the U.S. has recently referred to this and confirmed that the Fed's target is the PCE; however, he has also noted the unusual decoupling of the PCE rate from the CPI rate. Were the Fed to cut interest rates at a time that the PCE is behaving and the CPI is not, there's a good chance that could create some blowback in the markets. Whether we look at the U.S. or Europe, we see a good deal of policy dissonance.
by:Robert Brusca
|in:Economy in Brief
Europe| Jul 16 2024
EMU Trade Trends Reveal Export Weakness
EMU trade trends show a decline in both exports and imports in May; exports fall harder than imports. Exports decline in May, but log a small increase over six months; they are generally contracting or weak on all horizons. Contrarily, imports fall over 12 months, then step up to grow by 2.3% over six months and even faster growing at a 7.2% annual rate over three months.

We can divide export trends into manufactured goods vs. nonmanufactured goods. Manufacturing exports fall over three months, six months, and 12 months. The declines are in a rough range of -1.5% to -2.5%, annualized. Exports of nonmanufactured goods grow over all horizons but are also slowing steadily from 9.9% over 12 months to 4.6% at an annual rate over three months.

On the import side of the ledger, manufacturing imports are gaining pace and accelerating. Growth logs -8.1% over 12 months, then registers at a -1.8% annual rate over six months before imports break out to grow at a 5.5% annual rate over three months. Imports of nonmanufactured goods have generally stepped up from a 1.8% growth rate over 12 months to a 12.9% pace over six months then stepping back to a still-strong 11% annual rate over three months.

Export and import data for the EMU is for the region’s trade with areas outside of the EMU. All intra-community trade is netted out. The strength in imports suggests that some recovery may be afoot in the community with both imports of manufactured and nonmanufactured goods improving. Exports, on the other hand, show that the EMU export markets may still be quite weak since manufacturing exports are widely contracting and exports of nonmanufactured goods are slowing. Both hint at demand weakness.

Select data for a few European economies show German exports and imports both declining and both decelerating. France shows a tendency for imports to slide as its exports gain footing and accelerate. U.K. exports and imports are transitioning from declines over 12 months to increases over three months. Export data show a slippage with growing declines and weakness for Finland and Portugal. In contrast, Belgian exports are gathering strength and accelerating modestly, sequentially.

Trade trends show mixed results with manufacturing data underlining ongoing weakness while manufacturing imports are growing at a stepped-up, strong pace. The EMU trade balance has been relatively steady over 12 months, six months, and three months. The balance on manufactured goods is exceptionally steady at a surplus of €37bln to €39bln. The balance on nonmanufacturing trade has been steady over 12 months, six months and three months at €23bln.
by:Robert Brusca
|in:Economy in Brief
Europe| Jul 15 2024
EMU IP Trends Are Weak Except for Consumer Goods
European IP trends are muted in May as the headline fell by a sharp 0.6% month-to-month after coming up flat in April. Manufacturing output fell by 0.8% month-to-month. Output in May fell in consumer durable industries, for intermediate goods and for capital goods. In seven of thirteen EMU members presented in the table output also fell in May. Month-to-month changes in output, while admittedly are quite volatile, show flip-flopping as 46.2% of table reporters demonstrate accelerating output in May compared to 53.8% in April and 30.8% in March.

EMU output is in the process of a ‘soft acceleration.’ I term it as such because growth rates get progressively larger from 12-months, to 6-months, to 3-months. But all these growth rates are negative. So, the declines are becoming less pronounced. Manufacturing displays the exact same general characteristics.

Sector growth rates sequentially show consumer goods output growing on all horizons and engaged in a steady sequential acceleration. Consumer durables are closer to showing a declining trend on all negative sequential rates of growth. Nondurable consumer output is close to a pure sequential acceleration on very strong growth over three months and positive growth over all three sequential periods. Intermediate goods have no clear trend, but output does decline on all horizons. Capital goods output is also trendless but logs a rise over three months after significant declines logged over six months and 12 months.

The EMU median shows three negative numbers across the 13-reporting members. With acceleration across these members fading from 58.3% over 12 months and 66.7% over six months to 33.3% over three months.

Quarter-to-date (QTD) growth shows a gain for the EMU over all as headline IP is up at a 0.2% pace and manufacturing is up at a 0.7% annual rate. However, across 13 members in the table, eight report QTD declines in manufacturing sector output. However, there are three showing growth QTD that is very strong growth, of 20% or more, and another showing growth of nearly 17% (Belgium).

Output in EMU countries flounder through May. The trends are mild or muted even where they are somewhat positive.
by:Robert Brusca
|in:Economy in Brief
United Kingdom| Jul 12 2024
EMU Inflation: Headline Is contained; Core Is the Issue; Services Prices Are Nettlesome
EMU inflation ticked up by 0.1% in June after also rising by 0.1% in May – good stuff! The large countries show May changes ranging from 0.3% to -0.1%. May saw inflation rising in a range of 0% to 0.2% for the Big Four economies. That’s a nice, tight, low range.

Sequential inflation shows headline inflation running at 2.5% over 12 months and at 2.8% over six months, that decelerates to 1.7% over three months, more good news. But across the large economies in the EMU, inflation generally accelerates over three months to a 5.4% pace in Germany, 3.5% in France, and 3.0% in Italy. Only Spain shows a slower 1.7% pace. However, the year-on-year rates are more target-friendly. There, Spain has a high gain at 3.6%, Germany and France have 12-month rates that cluster around 2.5%, and Italy has a gain of 1%.

However, when we look at the core – excluding food & energy or just ex-energy - the results are much less target-friendly. Year-over-year France and Italy are close to target, with France at 1.9% and a 2.1% pace in Italy. German inflation is up at a 2.6% pace ex-energy while the core in Spain has inflation up by 3%. However, the tables are turned over three months where Germany and Spain show inflation as moderate at a 2.1% pace and France and Italy have core inflation up at a 2.6% to 2.8% pace. Still, these numbers are getting closer to the ‘two-percentish’ target the ECB current has.
by:Robert Brusca
|in:Economy in Brief
United Kingdom| Jul 11 2024
U.K. Manufacturing: Output Trend Eases
U.K. manufacturing output rose by 0.4% month-to-month in May, reversing the output drop from April. Sequentially output is in a low-growth profile gain at a pace of 0.6% over six months and 12 months. The three-month growth rate registers a negative 4.2% at an annual rate. Quarter-to-date IP is falling at a 4.5% annual rate. Manufacturing output is still 4.2% below its level of January 2020, before COVID struck. That’s four years and output is still lower on balance.

April showers; still few May flowers Sectors show mixed results with consumer durables output lower in May, nondurable goods output higher month-to-month by 1.1%, intermediate goods output higher, and capital goods output lower. It’s a mixed bag in May.

Sequential Growth Rates Sequential growth rates from 12-months to 6-months to 3-months show consistent negative growth rates for consumer durables. They tend toward weaker results but do not progress steadily since there is less weakness over six months than over 12 months. Similarly, consumer nondurable goods output shows consistent growth and tends toward acceleration except for a weakening in growth over six months. Intermediate goods output runs a pattern like that for consumer durables, growth rates that are consistently negative and tending toward more weakness. Capital goods output growth is positive over 12 months and six months, but growth slows over six months and declines over three months, exhibiting clear sequential deterioration.

Key Industries Key industries are mixed as well. Sequentially only food, beverages & tobacco output grows over each horizon. Textile & leather output declines on each horizon. Textile & leather is sequentially deteriorating along with vehicles and essentially utilities where 12-month and 6-month output growth is at nearly the same pace before dropping over three months. Only mining and quarrying has output stronger over three months than over 12 months.
by:Robert Brusca
|in:Economy in Brief
Australia| Jul 09 2024
Australian Business Confidence Runs a Downtrend Despite Uptick
Aussie business confidence Business confidence in Australia rose to 3.6 in June from -2.3 in May. Its rank percentile standing at the 31-percentile mark remained in the lower third of its historic queue of values. The 3-month moving average (MAV) is rising, but the 12-month MAV is falling. Business conditions eroded in the month.

The rank percentile standings (Rank %) for the headline of business conditions has a 31-percentile standing. Apart from prices, the highest percentile standings are for capacity utilization (87.3% standing), exporter sales (54.3 percentile), and exports (49.0 percentile). But prices and costs have standings of 86th percentile, 75th percentile, and 69th percentile.

The final column shows changes among the 13 components of the index are higher for 9 items and lower for 4 items, but this is after more than four years and the strongest gain is 2.4 points for inventories. On the negative side, capital expenditures are lower by 10.1 points, forward orders are lower by 8.9 points, profitability is lower by 2.2 points, and business conditions are lower by 0.4 points.
by:Robert Brusca
|in:Economy in Brief
Japan| Jul 08 2024
Economy Watchers Survey Rebounds in June But Still Reads as Weak
Japan’s economy watchers index current reading moved up to 47.0 in June from 45.7 in May. This move leaves the current index below its April value and continues a string of readings below 50, indicating ongoing contraction in the current index – that string is now at four months.

The future index for the economy watchers similarly rose to 47.9 in June from 46.3 in May and it's still below its April value of 48.5. Once again there's a month-to-month improvement and the continuation of a three-month string of readings below 50, indicating expected contraction in the future by the economy watchers survey.

The current index Still, the month is striking for its degree of improvement. The current headline improved month-to-month in six of nine components. Weakening on the month is the reading for housing that slipped to 45.3 from 46.7 in May; the assessment for corporations slipped to 47.3 in June from 47.9 in May; nonmanufacturers fell to 47.6 in June from a reading of over 50, at 50.1, in May. As a result of these changes, there are no readings in June in the current index above 50, which in the lexicon of diffusion index would reflect an assessment that activity was unchanged. All the sectors and categories assessed in the current index, even though many improved in the month, are still indicating ongoing contraction.

The future index The future index shows six of nine categories improving in June as well. And the futures index shows no sector in June with a reading at or above 50, underscoring that expectations are for continuing contractions in the future. The readings that weaken month-to-month are for housing that slipped to 44.0 in June from 45.7 in May, and for nonmanufacturers that slipped to 48.0 from 48.7 - these two slips match the declines and their current index as well. However, the future index also showed a slip in employment a reading that had been running read above 50, but it slipped to 49.9 in June from 50.3 in May.

Queue standings… We can further try to understand the meaning of the economy watchers index by looking at the queue standings of the diffusion readings for June. The queue standings are presented as percentages, and they reflect the percentile standing of the June economy watcher diffusion readings relative to observations back to January 2002.

Current queue Assessed in that way, the current index has four readings that are above 50% which puts them above their medians for that historic period. The strongest reading is for eating and drinking places, followed by services. However, the headline reading is only at 44.7 percentile and the weakest component is for employment with a 20.6 percentile standing. That tells us that the employment reading has been weaker than its June diffusion value of 46.2 only about 20% of the time, marking this as a significantly weak reading. The employment reading is important. However, for both current and future readings, the household, retail, and nonmanufacturer readings (in that order) are the most important.

Future queue The future index has a slightly weaker standing with its queue reading at a 41.9 percentile position. The future index has only one reading above its median and that's for manufacturers that have a 51.0 percentile standing for June. The weakest percentile standing among the future components is for housing with a 34-percentile standing, but not far off is employment with a 34.8 percentile standing, and services with a 39.1 percentile standing. The future assessments show that a great deal of weakness is still expected according to the economy watchers that were surveyed.
by:Robert Brusca
|in:Economy in Brief