By Joshua Kirby
U.S. economic growth picked up pace again last month amid a strong jobs market and rising demand, according to a monthly index published Monday.
The Chicago Fed National Activity Index increased to 0.15 in March from an upwardly revised 0.09 in February. The improvement was down to a better contribution from employment-related indicators and from sales, orders and inventories, the Chicago Fed said. The other two of the four categories that together make up the index fell back on month, however, with production making a less positive contribution and personal consumption and housing turning negative.
The index’s three-month moving average also ticked higher, rising to minus 19 from minus 0.28 in February, suggesting a generally improving trend across activity.
The CFNAI diffusion index–which captures how much the change in the monthly index is spread among the indicators over three months–also improved on month to minus 0.6 from minus 0.16 a month earlier. Periods of economic expansion have historically been associated with values of the CFNAI Diffusion Index above minus 0.35.
Write to Joshua Kirby at [email protected]; @joshualeokirby
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
04-22-24 0844ET
