Economy in Brief

The IFO business situation diffusion index backed off to 35.1 in September from 37.1 in August. Expressed in index terms it fell to 115.2 in September from 115.9 in August. Any way you slice it, the survey shows some weakening in the [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas indicated in its Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey that the September General Business Activity Index rose to 21.3 from 17.0 in August. The index was at the highest point since February. The [...]

The National Association for Business Economics expects 2.4% real U.S. economic growth in 2018, the same as expected in the last tally. This follows an unchanged expectation for 2.2% growth this year. Quarterly GDP growth is expected [...]

Based on the last five and one-half years of data, the EMU region is doing excellently. The EMU region overall and its two largest economies show composite rankings in the mid-to-high 90th percentile of their historic queues of data [...]

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve reported that its General Factory Sector Business Conditions Index increased roughly five points to 23.8 during September following declines during the prior two months. The figure compared to [...]

The Federal Reserve's Financial Accounts data show continued slowing of debt issuance in U.S. financial markets in Q1 2017. The total came to $1,197 billion at a seasonally adjusted annual rate, down from $1,742 billion in Q4. The [...]

Borrowing in U.S. financial markets picked up in Q2 2017, according to the Federal Reserve's Financial Accounts data, which show debt issuance of $2,378 billion at a seasonally adjusted annual rate. This compares to $1,333 billion [...]

The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators increased 0.4% (4.4% y/y) in August following an unrevised 0.3% July gain. A 0.2% rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. Three-month growth [...]