Our coverage dives deep into regional trends that are impacting the global markets
In the U.S., efforts at social distancing started in earnest sometime two weeks ago – perhaps the turning point was when the National Basketball Association decided to suspend its season and cancel games on Wednesday, March 11. As social distancing has become increasingly the norm in large parts of the country, negative effects on the economy will become considerable.
Certain U.S. economic data (such as unemployment initial claims) are weekly and, therefore, can keep track of what is going on certain areas of the economy in a timely manner. But most statistics are time-lagged. So daily electricity load data will be of major value (though they are impacted heavily by prevailing temperatures).
The chart on the right shows daily data for New York City – for the last two weeks or so, electricity demand has been running considerably below recent years’ levels, even though weather has been generally mild. So measures to restrict activity to slow the spread of the coronavirus are having visible effects on data.
We will continue to monitor electricity statistics from New York and other places in the U.S. to show how the economy is getting impacted by the coronavirus.