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Economy in Brief
U.S. Mortgage Applications Decline as Interest Rates Continue to Increase
The MBA Mortgage Loan Applications Index declined 11.4%...
French Sectors Show Minor Recovery from Pre-Covid19 Levels
French industry climate improved in February...
U.S. Consumer Confidence Increases in February
The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index increased 2.7% (-31.1% y/y) to 91.3 during February...
U.S. FHFA House Price Index Continues to Rise Markedly
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index increased 1.1% m/m in December...
U.S. Energy Prices Surge as Texas Freeze Limits Supply
The price of regular gasoline strengthened to $2.63 per gallon (6.8% y/y) in the week ended February 22...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller August 19, 2005
The National Activity Index (CFNAI) compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago has improved since the low this past March and suggests that US economic growth has strengthened. Despite a dip in July to 0.16 from 0.40 in June, the three-month moving average of the CFNAI improved to 0.23 versus the low near zero.
A zero value of the CFNAI indicates that the economy is expanding at its historical trend rate of growth.
The CFNAI is a weighted average of 85 indicators of economic activity. The indicators reflect activity in the following categories: production and income, the labor market, personal consumption and housing, manufacturing and trade sales, and inventories & orders.
During the last twenty years there has been a 74% correlation between the level of the CFNAI and q/q growth in real GDP.
The latest CFNAI report is available here.
Chicago Fed | July | June | July '04 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
CFNAI | 0.16 | 0.40 | 0.61 | 0.39 | -0.11 | -0.41 |