Weekly Economic Index (WEI)

July 2, 2020

 

Daniel Lewis, New York Fed

Karel Mertens, Dallas Fed

James Stock, Harvard University

The WEI is an index of 10 weekly indicators of real economic activity, scaled to have the units of four-quarter percent change of real GDP.

 

• The WEI is currently -7.44 percent, scaled to four-quarter GDP growth, for the week ended June 27 and -7.91 percent for June 20; for reference, the WEI stood at 1.54 percent for the week ended February 29.
• Today’s increase in the WEI for the week of June 27 is driven by increases in electricity output and fuel sales and a small decrease in initial UI claims, which more than offset decreases in tax withholdings and rail traffic relative to the same time last year. The WEI for the week of June 20 was revised downwards following a small decrease in continuing claims, since the release still provides a weaker signal than previously available data.
• As alternative scales, the current WEI implies a 27.11 percent decrease in IP (YoY) and a 1018k employee decrease in nonfarm payroll. 
• Data dashboard and .release (.pdf)
• Historical data including recent release (.xlsx)