Puerto Rico Economic Activity Index Stable

Puerto Rico's Economic Activity Index was unchanged in January at 127.0 compared to the adjusted number for December.

Simultaneously, the Government Development Bank of Puerto Rico announced revisions upwards to the index for this past year.

The GDB's Economic Activity Index is based on four factors: gasoline consumption, total non-farm payroll, electric power generation, and cement sales.

January gasoline consumption increased 13% from December and cement sales were up 19.6%. Electric power generation decreased 1%.

Because the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics has just revised total non-farm payroll for 2013 and the GDB did not announce the revised figure for December, the shift in non-farm payroll could not be calculated.

Puerto Rico's unemployment rate declined to 15.2% in January from 15.5% in December.

The BLS revised the average total payroll employment for 2013 to 925,850 from 904,575, a 2.4% increase.

The BLS revision has led to revisions for all of the 2013 Economic Activity Index values.

The decline in the index to Dec. 2013 from Dec. 2012 was not as steep. There was a 4.3% decline in the period instead of a 5.3% decline, as previously understood.

There was a steady decline Dec. 2012 to Aug. 2013 and since then there has been movement up, down and sideways. Prior to the revision, the period Aug. 2013 to Dec. 2013 showed an overall 0.8% increase; with the revision it shows a 1.1% increase.

The January 2014 index number was down 3.5% from January 2013.

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