Retail Sales Sing Into the Holidays
|U.S. Review
Retail Sales Sing Into the Holidays
- As was widely expected, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) hiked rates this week. The top range of the fed funds rate now stands at 1.50 percent.
- Inflation measures started to show signs of emerging price pressures for producers and consumers.
- Retail sales for November showed that the holiday shopping season was off to a strong start. Overall sales rose 0.8 percent for the month.
- Industrial output rose 0.2 percent in November with manufacturing output also climbing 0.2 percent.
Global Review
Global Central Bank Meetings
- It was a big week for central banks as the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank all met.
- After a period in which the Fed was somewhat by itself in terms of raising rates, there is now a widening front along which other major central banks are either also raising rates or, in the case of the ECB, at least guiding monetary policy in a somewhat less expansionary direction.
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