(Reuters) – A new set of supply availability indexes show that improvement in firms’ access to inputs hit a wall over the past couple of months, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said on Monday.
“These indexes indicate that supply availability had generally been improving since early 2023, but over the past couple of months, improvement has stalled,” the New York Fed said in a blog post on Monday.
The supply availability indexes will feature in the Empire State Manufacturing and Business Leaders surveys from June. The indexes are designed to measure how widespread supply disruptions are, understand if availability is improving, and track inflationary pressures.
After surging during the coronavirus pandemic, overall supply chain pressures have been subsiding, which has helped inflation pressures fall markedly from its peak.
The current trend “is concerning,” the New York Fed wrote, and indicate that supply disruptions remain significant for many firms in the region at a time when the Federal Reserve is worried about a slowdown in progress in returning inflation back to its 2% goal.
The new gauge closely tracks the Global Supply Chain Pressures Index and can be joined with it to compare trends in the United States to international supply availability.
The supply availability indexes will be available early each month as part of the New York Fed’s regular regional business surveys, before many other indicators are available, the bank said.
(Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
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