(Bloomberg) -- A Yelp Inc. gauge of U.S. consumer and business activity showed signs of lackluster economic growth in the third quarter amid headwinds from the biggest cities in California.

Yelp’s measure of the health of the world’s largest economy was little changed from the prior quarter amid China trade tensions and other sources of uncertainty, according to the report Tuesday from the San Francisco-based user-review website. The index rose just 0.07%, barely registering increased activity, to 99.2, just shy of the 100 level that indicates longer-term momentum is increasing.

The index, compiled from online activity by about 37 million monthly app users and 77 million mobile web users, mainly tracks consumer interest and business survival. While it doesn’t represent gross domestic product, the update comes before official third-quarter GDP data due Oct. 30 that economists project will show growth slowed to a 1.5% annualized pace. That’s down from a 2% rate in the prior quarter that was already the second-weakest since 2016.

Yelp’s figures for the restaurant sector showed Americans were downshifting toward cheaper options in the third quarter versus the second. Seafood, sushi and smoothies were less popular among users, while gains were seen across establishments serving up sandwiches, pizzas, donuts and chicken wings.

While the most-populous state remains dominant nationally, longer-term data show its major cities saw some of the steepest declines in activity among the 50 major metropolitan areas in the analysis. Since the end of 2016, San Francisco, San Jose and San Diego were among the worst performers, while Los Angeles was in the bottom 10 and Sacramento below average.

“California’s biggest local economies are continuing to struggle,” Carl Bialik, Yelp’s data science editor, said in a statement. “Construction limits and increasing rent are pushing consumers and workers farther from businesses, contributing to continued quarterly declines in some of the state’s biggest metro areas, with retail and restaurants taking the biggest hits.”

Nation-State

Stagnation in the Golden State could have an outsize influence on national figures given its big footprint. With 40 million residents accounting for one of eight Americans, the home state of some of the world’s biggest companies also is a global economic titan with $3 trillion in output. As a nation, that would rank fifth behind the U.S., China, Japan and Germany and ahead of the U.K.

The state’s challenges are just as outsize. San Francisco and San Jose have consistently ranked as the weakest performers in each of the last three quarters as soaring rents and construction limits dent prospects for businesses such as retailers and restaurants, Bialik said.

Far from Silicon Valley, some of the best-performing metros relative to the end of 2016 have been in the northeast, including Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Portland, Maine. Milwaukee has been in the top spot for three of the last four quarters.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeff Kearns in Washington at jkearns3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Scott Lanman at slanman@bloomberg.net

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