Economic Radar: CPI, Food Stamps, Housing, More

Economic Radar: Recap of the past week’s U.S. economic releases:

The U.S. Treasury ran a deficit of $97.6 billion in July. The rolling 12 month budget deficit is $722.7 billion which is 26.5% of receipts for that period.
Participation in the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also know as food stamps, increased 0.18% in May to 47.6353 million people.
Labor productivity increased at an annual rate of 0.9% in the Q2 2013. Unit labor costs increased at an annual rate of 1.4%.
The consumer price index increased 0.2% in July and is up 2.0% from a year ago.
The producer price index was unchanged in July and is up 2.1% from a year ago.
The Empire State manufacturing survey declined but remains in expansion with a reading of +8.24 in August.
The Philly Fed also reported the results from its manufacturing survey for August which also declined but remained in expansion at a reading of +9.3.
Housing starts were at a SAAR of 896k in July.
Industrial production was unchanged in July and is up 1.4% from a year ago. It is currently at 98.9% of its 2007 level.
Manufacturers’ sales increased 0.2% in June while inventories were virtually unchanged. The business inventories-to-sales ratio was 1.29, the same as the month prior.
Consumer sentiment declined to 80.0 in its preliminary reading for August.
Retail sales increased 0.2% in July and are up 5.2% from a year ago.
Store sales are being kept alive with gains from apparel and department stores while discount and electronic stores are suffering. The weekly store sales indicators are up 2.4% Y/Y (4 week MA) and up 3.4% Y/Y (4 week MA).
Initial jobless claims for the week were 320k, the lowest they have been since January 2008. The insured unemployment rate was unchanged at 2.3%.