How fast are economies moving this week?
Weekly economic activity indices for France, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom, United States, built from high-frequency public data: electricity demand, freight, travel, card spending, job postings, jobless claims and more. One comparable scale: 0 = average growth, +1 = one standard deviation faster. Updated every Friday morning (UTC); latest week 19 Oct 2026.
Latest readings
Comparison
| Economy | Pulse | Reading | 4 weeks | 13 weeks | Percentile | Week of |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spain | +1.21 | strong | +0.75 | +1.05 | 97% | 19 Oct 2026 |
| Germany | +0.92 | above-average | +0.06 | +0.92 | 88% | 19 Oct 2026 |
| United States | +0.38 | above-average | +0.06 | +0.22 | 74% | 19 Oct 2026 |
| United Kingdom | +0.26 | above-average | +0.37 | +0.60 | 68% | 19 Oct 2026 |
| France | ±0.00 | about average | +0.28 | +0.52 | 50% | 19 Oct 2026 |
What is the Weekly Economic Pulse?
Official GDP arrives quarterly, weeks after the quarter ends. Weekly data move much sooner. The Pulse condenses a handful of weekly and daily indicators per economy into one momentum gauge, in the same family as the New York Fed's Weekly Economic Index and the Bundesbank's Weekly Activity Index, computed independently by worldgdp.org for 5 economies on one scale.
It is not a GDP forecast. For GDP, see the daily nowcasts; where the Pulse makes a GDP nowcast more accurate in testing, the nowcast uses it as an input. Method and tests: Methodology. Data for AI assistants: the MCP server tool get_weekly_pulse.