Puerto Rico's economic activity index was up for the third straight month in March.
The index was up 0.5% in March from February. The index is now up 1% from its post-1990s low in December 2014.
On a year-over-year basis the index in March was down 0.4%, an improvement from its 0.8% year-over-year decrease in February.
The increase in the index in recent months was primarily due to increasing gasoline consumption, according to the Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico, which compiles the statistics. The other index measures are nonfarm payroll employment, electric power generation, and cement sales.
In the index value announcement for the March data, the GDB also introduced a new method of calculating the index that has a different method to adjust for seasons. The method was changed to improve the index accuracy and make short-term comparisons more reliable. The new index values also have less volatility than the old index values.
The economic activity index growth in the three months through March runs parallel with Puerto Rico employment growth for six consecutive months through March, which the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced in its household survey April 21.
