Chicago Fed Midwest Manufacturing Activity Drops to its Weakest in 15 Yrs.

The Chicago Federal Reserve Bank said on Monday its Midwest manufacturing index, a monthly estimate by major industry of manufacturing output in the Seventh Federal Reserve District states of lllinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, and Wisconsin, decreased 0.4% in February, to a seasonally adjusted level of 83.8. It is the weakest data in almost 15 years as steel and machinery output tumbled.

Revised numbers show the index declined 6.7% in January, to 84.2.

Compared with a year earlier, Midwest output was down 22.2%, much worse than the 13.8% national decline.

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