United States Chicago Fed National Activity Index

The National Activity Index or CFNAI is a weighted average of 85 existing monthly indicators of national economic activity. It is designed to have a mean of zero and a standard deviation of one. Since economic activity is usually accompanied by growth in the long run, a positive index value corresponds to growth above the trend, and a negative value of the index corresponds to growth below the trend. A value of zero means that the economy is growing at the historical average. The 85 economic indicators included in the CFNAI are based on four broad categories of data: production and income; employment, unemployment and working hours; personal consumption and housing; and sales, orders and inventories. Each of these series measures some aspect of overall macroeconomic activity.