Forex Economic News Roundup - Euro, US cpi data. US Housing Starts. | CountingPips Forex & Currency Trading Blog

April 16, 2008 - Forex Economic News

Forex Economic News Roundup - Euro, US cpi data. US Housing Starts.

Eurozone Consumer Price Index data was released by EuroStat and showed that cpi inflation increased by 1.0 percent in March. The increase in March brought the inflation level to an annual rate of 3.6 percent which marks a 15 year high. March's core inflation, excluding energy and food prices, rose by 2.0 percent over last year's level. Energy and food prices were major contributors to the increased inflation data in March for the eurozone. The increased inflation data has put to rest speculation that the European Central Bank will reduce interest rates in the short term and has propelled the European currency upwards against its rivals today.

The U.S. Department of Labor also released its report on consumer prices today and the report showed that prices increased a seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent in March. The March increase brought the annual rate of inflation to a 4.0 percent increase over last year's level. Core cpi inflation, excluding energy and food prices, registered an increase of 0.2 percent in March and brought the annual rate to a 2.4 percent increase over last year. Food prices increased by 0.2 percent while gasoline prices increased by 1.3 percent in March.

U.S. Housing Starts and Building Permits fall in March.

U.S. Housing Starts and Building Permits declined in the month of March according to data released by the Commerce Department on new residential construction. Housing Starts fell by 11.9 percent in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 947,000, a decrease from February's 1,075,000 estimated housing starts. March's total is down 36.5 percent compared with March of 2007. Single-family housing starts totaled 680,000 which was 5.7 percent less than February.

Building permits statistics, used as a predictor of future construction, showed a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 927,000 permits in March which is a decrease of 5.8 percent compared to February. March's total is a 40.9 percent drop from March of 2007. Single-family permits totaled 606,000 which was 6.2 percent less than February's 646,000 permits.

Housing Completions for March were also decreased compared to February. March posted an annual rate of 1,216,000 privately-owned housing completions. This is a decrease of 2.7 percent compared to February and a 24.5 percent drop compared to March 2007 which saw 1,610,000. Single family housing completions totaled an annual rate of 944,000 in March which was an increase of 3.3 percent over February.

Tags: consumer price index, eur, usd, housing starts, building permits, inflation, housing completions

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