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US: Chicago Fed National Activity Index
| Actual | Previous | Revised | |
| Index | -0.10 | 0.14 | 0.19 |
| 3-Month Moving Average | -0.03 | 0.03 | 0.07 |
Highlights
The index slips barely into negative territory at minus 0.10 in May from a revised 0.19 (previous 0.14) in April. The 3-month moving average is also down to minus 0.03 in May from 0.07 in April(previous 0.03).
For the overall index, only 1 of 4 components made positive contribution and 3 were negative in May from April as follows:
US CHICAGO FED NATIONAL ACTIVITY INDEX PRODUCTION -0.04 IN MAY VS +0.23 IN APRIL (PREV +0.18)
US CHICAGO FED NATIONAL ACTIVITY INDEX SALES, ORDERS, INVENTORIES +0.02 IN MAY VS -0.04 IN APRIL (PREV +0.02)
US CHICAGO FED NATIONAL ACTIVITY INDEX EMPLOYMENT -0.04 IN MAY VS +0.05 IN APRIL (PREV -0.02)
US CHICAGO FED NATIONAL ACTIVITY INDEX CONSUMPTION & HOUSING -0.04 IN MAY VS 0.00 IN APRIL (PREV -0.04)
Definition
The Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) is a monthly index that tracks overall economic activity and inflationary pressures. The CFNAI is a weighted average of 85 existing monthly indicators of national economic activity. It is constructed to have an average value of zero and a standard deviation of one. Since economic activity tends toward trend growth over time, a positive index reading corresponds to growth above trend and a negative index reading corresponds to growth below trend.
Description
This index is unique among regional Federal Reserve Bank indexes in that it is national in scope. Investors are eager to have insight into economic growth and inflation. This index combines 85 diverse and already released indicators from four broad categories -- production and income; employment, unemployment, and hours; personal consumption and housing; and sales, orders, and inventories -- into an overall index to measure economic performance. The index provides another measure with which investors can measure overall growth.
