Tag: economy

Gas Surcharges Haven’t Added To Commodities, CPI Shows

By Menglin Huang| Mar 16, 2012 Higher gas prices in February drove headline consumer prices up by the most in 10 months. But outside of energy, the inflation still remained in check. The consumer price index, or CPI, increased 0.4 percent last month, marking its biggest gain since last April, […]

Economic Growth Slow but Steady

Three consecutive months of job growth indicates that the economy has finally reached a point of stability, after gaining more jobs in the month of February. The private sector added 227,000 jobs with marked growth in professional services, health care and manufacturing and the unemployment rate was steady at 8.3 […]

Retail Sales Up, Car Sales Down

Retail sales rose 0.4% in January, well below expectations in a sign that the economy isn’t recovering quite as quickly as economists would like to think. Since automakers had reported an increase in unit sales earlier in the month, the 1.3% drop in motor vehicle sales was the biggest surprise […]

The Upside to the Widening Trade Deficit

The U.S. trade deficit grew in December and overall in 2011 for the second year in a row, a sign the economy is picking up steam, say economists. From November to December, the trade deficit grew to $48.8 billion from $47.1 billion. Within that gap are signs of economic growth: […]

Retail Sales Slip Following Holiday Season

Retail sales fell in January, as a slow job market and rising gas prices kept consumers out of stores following the holiday season. The advanced estimates for the United States retail and food service sales for January were $381.6 billion, an increase of 0.3 percent from the previous month, according […]

Jump in Producer Prices Raises Inflation Questions

Wholesale prices increased by 0.8 percent in January, exceeding some forecasters’ predictions. But economists said it’s too soon to sound the alarm on rising inflation, mostly because the overall economic recovery still remains weak. The increase marks the seventh consecutive rise, following a 0.9 percent advance in December and a […]