The Chicago Fed has released its National Activity Index for August. The index indicates that growth continued above-trend in August -- the index is constructed so that zero equals trend growth -- but weakened relative to July.
The Chicago Fed National Activity Index was +0.19 in August, down sharply from an upward revised +0.53 in July. The drop in the monthly index was due to smaller positive contributions from production-related data and, to a lesser extent, housing and consumption-related data. The employment-related category made a small negative contribution to the CFNAI in August for the third month in a row.