Monitoring Real Activity in Real Time: The Weekly Economic Index

Daniel Lewis, Karel Mertens and James Stock

No 20200330b, Liberty Street Economics from Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Abstract: Economists are well-practiced at assessing real activity based on familiar aggregate time series, like the unemployment rate, industrial production, or GDP growth. However, these series represent monthly or quarterly averages of economic conditions, and are only available at a considerable lag, after the month or quarter ends. When the economy hits sudden headwinds, like the COVID-19 pandemic, conditions can evolve rapidly. How can we monitor the high-frequency evolution of the economy in “real time”?

Keywords: high frequency; real activity; nowcasting; COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C53 E2 E32 I12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-03-30
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mac
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