Boston Fed publishes new data series that gives more frequent insights into economic growth by state

The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston has begun publishing a new data series that combines indexes that track weekly economic developments in each of the 50 U.S. states.

The resulting index reflects the pace of each state's economic growth.

The series is called the Weekly State-level Economic Conditions Index. The index combines "high-frequency data" - such as unemployment claims or applications to start new businesses - with "low-frequency" data, including employment or income statistics.

Each index is normalized - meaning it's adjusted to a common scale - so users can compare states with each other and with national economic conditions. The indexes begin in 1987 and are presented in an interactive chart.

Boston Fed Principal Economist and Policy Advisor Danilo Leiva-León is coauthor of "Tracking Weekly State-level Economic Conditions," which describes how the database was constructed. He said most economic data series are measured monthly or quarterly and often released after long delays. "Our index supports policymakers and economic developers by presenting a more comprehensive and frequent assessment of state economic indicators," Leiva-León said.

The index joins other continuously updated data resources published by the Boston Fed:

• New England Economic Indicators has been published monthly since 1969. It provides current and historical economic data for each of New England's six states, the region as a whole, and the U.S.
• A statistical model that breaks down real-time inflation readings into supply and demand components. The data is updated monthly and presented in a downloadable format. The model was introduced in the Current Policy Perspectives brief, "Parsing Out the Sources of Inflation."

Leaders in the Boston Fed's Research Department say they plan to continue expanding the suite of data tools available to the public.