United States Chicago Fed National Activity Index

Last Release

Mar 31, 2025

Actual

-0.03

Units In

Points

0.24

Frequency

Monthly

Next Release

May 22, 2025

Time to Release

26 Days 21 Hours

Highest	Lowest	Average	Date Range	Source
6.01 Jun 2020	-17.79 Apr 2020	0 Points	1967-2025	Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) is designed to gauge overall economic activity and related inflationary pressure. The CFNAI is based on a weighted average of 85 existing monthly indicators of national economic activity. It has an average value of zero and a standard deviation of one. Since economic activity tends toward trend growth rate over time, a positive reading corresponds to growth above trend and a negative reading corresponds to growth below trend.

Latest Updates

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index for the US fell to -0.03 in March 2025 from +0.24 in February, suggesting growth was weaker than the long-term average. Two of the four broad categories of indicators used to construct the index decreased from February, and three categories made negative contributions in March. Production-related indicators contributed –0.09 to the CFNAI in March, down from +0.25 in February. The sales, orders, and inventories category's contribution was –0.03, down from +0.01 in February, and employment-related indicators contributed –0.01, up from –0.02 in February. The personal consumption and housing category's contribution to the CFNAI was +0.11 in March, up from a neutral value in February. The index's three-month moving average, CFNAI-MA3, decreased to –0.01 in March from +0.12 in February.