Mobility data from Apple and Google is being used to help track any economic recovery following the loosening of coronavirus-enforced lockdowns. Some analysts are using data converning things like travel direction requests in order to help judge economic activity (via Bloomberg Quint).
Tracking Economic Recovery Using Apple’s Mobility Data
Apple, along with Google, launched mobility-monitoring tools in April as part of its response to the coronavirus pandemic. The anonymized data shows the volume of people driving, walk, and taking public transport. The data covers 63 major countries or regions.
In an email, John Roe, head of multi-asset funds at Legal & General Investment Management, wrote that “it’s all about the shape of the recovery and so we’re tracking a number of innovative data sources that we believe will be more real time.”
Likewise, a team of strategists at Societe Generale wrote:
Regional differences are apparent and the extent of the lockdown remains clear and though there are very tentative signs that the G7 at least is starting to drive a little more, activity remains depressed.