Fueled by solid same-store sales and traffic results and a bullish outlook among restaurant operators, theNational Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Performance Index (RPI) rose sharply in December.The RPI – a monthly composite index that tracks the health of and outlook for the U.S. restaurant industry – stood at 102.2 in December, up 1.6 percent from November and its highest level in nearly six years.In addition, December represented the third time in the last four months that the RPI stood above 100, which signifies expansion in the index of key industry indicators.
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, and index values below 100 represent a period of contraction for key industry indicators. Building on a solid November performance that saw the strongest same-store sales results in more than four years, restaurant operators reported even better numbers in December.Sixty-nine percent of restaurant operators reported a same-store sales gain between December 2010 and December 2011, while only 18 percent reported a same-store sales decline.This marked the strongest net positive sales performance since February 2004, when 70 percent of operators reported a sales gain and 17 percent reported lower sales. More news and information from the National Restaurant Association can be found athttp://www.restaurant.org/pressroom.
Posted by Aaron
