Key Economic Indicators – February 18, 2013

  • Advance estimates of retail and food services sales for January were up 0.1% from December, and were up 4.4% from January 2012.
  • Total manufacturing and trade sales increased 0.3% in December, while inventories increased 0.1%.
  • Total Industrial production decreased 0.1% in January, following a 0.4% increase in the previous month. The rate of capacity utilization for total industry was 79.1%, a level 1.1 percentage points below its 1972-2012 average, but 0.4 percentage point above its level in January 2012.
  • The federal government budget ran a surplus of $2.9 billion in January, after a deficit of $1.2 billion in the previous month.
  • Treasury International Capital reported net foreign purchases of long-term securities of $76.5 billion in December, compared with net purchases of $61.5 billion in the previous month.
  • The import price index increased 0.6% in January, while export prices increased 0.3%.
  • The advance figure for initial claims for unemployment insurance decreased 27 thousand to 341 thousand in the week ending February 9.
  • The results of Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey showed fixed mortgage rates unchanged from the previous week and remaining near their record lows.
  • Mortgage applications decreased 6.4% from a week earlier week, according to data from Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Applications Survey for the week ending February 8.
  • The January Empire State Manufacturing Survey indicated that the conditions for New York manufacturers improved for the first time since the summer of last year.
  • The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment, preliminary, rose to 76.3 in February from 73.8 in January.

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