Producer Price Index

March 15 2023 The Producer Price Index for final demand  includes producer prices for goods, as well as prices for construction, services, government purchases, and exports and covers over 75% of domestic production. Producer prices for final demand fell 0.1% in...

Retail Sales

March 15, 2023 Retail sales declined 0.4% in February after having jumped 3.2% in January. In the past year retail sales have climbed by 5.4%.  In the past three months sales have climbed at a 7.9% annual rate. Motor vehicle sales fell 1.8% in February after having...

Gasoline Prices

March 15, 2023 Gasoline prices rose $0.07 in the week ending March 13 to $3.46 after having risen $0.05 in the previous week. Prices have now fallen $1.54 since reaching a high of $5.00 in mid-June of last year.   In South Carolina gasoline prices tend to be about...

Small Business Optimism

March 14, 2023 . Small business optimism rose 0.6 point in February to 90.9 after gaining 0.5 point in January. It has been bouncing around at about this same level since June.  These levels are roughly in line with the low point in the March/April 2020 recession...

Consumer Price Index

March 14, 2023 The CPI rose 0.4% in February after climbing 0.5% in January.  It rose 6.4% in 2022,  The year-over-year increase is currently 6.0%.  We expect the CPI to increase  4.8% in 2023, and 3.0% in 2024.  While the markets are convinced that inflation will now...

Payroll Employment

March 10, 2023 Payroll employment climbed by 311 thousand in February after having jumped by 504 thousand in January and 239 thousand in December.  In the past three months the average increase has been 351 thousand.  At the beginning of last year we were routinely...