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Economy in Brief
U.S. Housing Affordability Declines Further in June
The NAR Fixed Rate Mortgage Housing Affordability Index fell 3.6% in June...
EMU Output Makes Solid Gain in June
The European Monetary Union posted a 0.7% increase for industrial output in June...
U.S. Producer Prices Fall During July; Core Increase Weakens
The Producer Price Index for Final Demand fell 0.5% during July...
U.S. Unemployment Claims Continue on an Uptrend
Initial claims for unemployment insurance filed in the week ended August 6 rose 14,000 to 262,000...
RICS Survey Points to More U.K. Housing Sector Weakness
The survey of housing market conditions in the U.K. continues to show strength in prices versus weakness...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller November 26, 2007
The National Activity Index (CFNAI) from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago during October ran negative for the third consecutive month at -0.73. It was the eight month in the last tenthat the index ran negative and it landed the three month moving average at its lowest level (-0.56) since 2003.
The Chicago Fed indicated that three of the four broad categories of indicatorsemployment, production, and consumption and housingmade negative contributions to the index.
A zero value of the CFNAI indicates that the economy is expanding at its historical trend rate of growth and during the last twenty years there has been a 68% correlation between the level of the CFNAI and q/q growth in real GDP.
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.
The complete CFNAI report is available here.
Chicago Fed | October | September | Oct. '06 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
CFNAI | -0.73 | -0.30 | -0.43 | 0.03 | 0.28 | 0.32 |