By Joshua Kirby

The U.S. economy weakened at the end of the year as production slipped and employment fell back, data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago showed Thursday.

The Chicago Fed National Activity Index decreased to minus 0.15 in December from 0.01 in November, with all categories of indicators contributing to the decline. The reading below zero suggests economic activity is expanding at a slightly slower rate than its average historical trend.

The CFNAI index, designed to gauge overall economic activity and inflationary pressures, is composed of 85 economic indicators from four broad categories of data: production and income; employment, unemployment and hours; personal consumption and housing; and sales, orders and inventories.

Production-related indicators decreased further below zero, as did those gauging employment. Sales, orders and inventories turned negative, while personal consumption and housing fell but remained in positive territory.

The CFNAI diffusion index - which captures how much the change in the monthly index is spread among the 85 indicators over three months - fell a little to minus 0.32. The index's headline three-month moving average similarly declined.

Write to Joshua Kirby at joshua.kirby@wsj.com; @joshualeokirby

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 25, 2024 08:44 ET (13:44 GMT)