A special-purpose index is to be designed to monitor the overall economy of the Southwest. Four key series were selected. After considerable deliberation, it was decided to weight retail sales 20%, total bank deposits 10%, industrial production in the area 40%, and nonagricultural employment 30%. The data for 1996 and 2018 are:

Construct a special-purpose index for 2018 using 1996 as the base period and interpret.

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Bank Industrial Retail Sales Deposits ($ billions) Production Year ($ millions) (1990 = 100) Employment 1996 1,159.0 87 110.6 1,214,000 2018 1,971.0 91 114.7 1,501,000