Driven by improvements in the current situation indicators, the National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Performance Index (RPI) registered a moderate increase in May. The RPI – a monthly composite index that tracks the health of and outlook for the U.S. restaurant industry – stood at 100.9 in May, up 0.6 percent from a level of 100.3 in April. The May increase in the RPI was due largely to stronger readings in the current situation indicators. Although restaurant operators continued to report mixed same-store sales and customer traffic, the results were an improvement over April’s levels.
At the same time, restaurant operators’ six-month outlook for sales growth and the economy softened somewhat from recent months. The RPI is constructed so that the health of the restaurant industry is measured in relation to a steady-state level of 100. Index values above 100 indicate that key industry indicators are in a period of expansion, while index values below 100 represent a period of contraction for key industry indicators.