US economic activity weakens, Chicago Federal Reserve finds
The latest release of the聽聽indicated that the national economic activity weakened in June with the index falling to a very weak level of 0.12 from a level of 0.16 in May while the three month moving average worsened to a weak level of 0.13.聽
The CFNAI is a weighted average of 85 indicators of national economic activity collected into four overall categories of 鈥減roduction and income鈥�, 鈥渆mployment, unemployment and income鈥�, 鈥減ersonal consumption and housing鈥� and 鈥渟ales, orders and inventories鈥�.
The Chicago Fed regards a value of zero for the total index as indicating that the national economy is expanding at its historical trend rate while a negative value indicates below average growth.
A value at or below -0.70 for the three month moving average of the national activity index (CFNAI-MA3) indicates that the national economy has either just entered or continues in recession.聽
