Philly Fed Survey Up 2.4 Points to 17.6 – New Orders Surge

In February, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve's General Business Conditions Index for manufacturing activity in its district rose 2.4 points to 17.6 The improvement in the index followed a fallback in January. Still this was the sixth consecutive month where the index was positive indicating activity expansion. Employment improved by 1.3 points and was positive for the third consecutive month. Also notable was that the new orders component jumped 19.5 points to 22.7 a new cyclical high, indicating that stronger output growth is likely in coming months.

	Feb	Jan	Dec	Nov	Oct	Sep
Activity Index	17.6	15.2	22.5	18.8	11.8	10.5
Employment	7.4	6.1	4.5	-2.2	-9.5	-15.7
New Orders	22.7	3.2	8.3	13.1	7.1	1.9
Unfilled Orders	-7.5	3.6	1.7	-4.3	-2.4	-9.7
Inventories	3.2	-1.6	-5.7	-17.4	-31.9	-19

10.02.18 (Source: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia)