Econoday Economic Report: Chicago Fed National Activity Index May 21, 2012

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Chicago Fed National Activity Index

Released On 5/21/2012 8:30:00 AM For Apr, 2012

	Prior	Actual
Level	-0.29	0.11
3 Month Moving Average	0.05	-0.06

Highlights
The nation's economy bounced back and grew above its historical trend in April. The Chicago Fed's national activity index rose to plus 0.11 from a revised minus 0.44 in March. Strength in April is centered in production which reversed March's slide. Despite the gain, the three-month moving average for the index fell into negative ground, to minus 0.06 to indicate that the trend in economic growth is fractionally below average. On the plus side, the report notes that subdued rates of growth point to subdued rates of inflation.

Definition
The Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) is a monthly index designed to better gauge overall economic activity and inflationary pressure. 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 rate over time, a positive index reading corresponds to growth above trend and a negative index reading corresponds to growth below trend. (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago) Why Investors Care

2012 Release Schedule

Released On: 1/26 2/21 3/26 4/26 5/21 6/25 7/23 8/20 9/24 10/25 11/26 12/21

Release For: Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov