Weekly Economic Index (WEI)

July 30, 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 -6.60 percent, scaled to four-quarter GDP growth, for the week ended July 25 and -7.61 percent for July 18; for reference, the WEI stood at 1.55 percent for the week ended February 29
• Today’s increase in the WEI for the week of July 25 was driven by a decline in initial UI claims and increases in fuel sales, electricity output, and tax withholding, which more than offset a decrease in rail traffic. The WEI for the week of July 18 was revised downward due to an increase in continuing UI claims, which provided a more negative signal than previously available data. 
• As alternative scales, the current WEI implies a 24.63 percent decrease in IP (YoY) and a 917k employee decrease in nonfarm payroll.
• Data dashboard and .release (.pdf)
• Historical data including recent release (.xlsx)