A plunge in building permits, especially for multifamily housing, led a measure of the state’s economy to its third consecutive monthly decline. The Iowa Leading Indicators Index dropped to 107.5 in December from 107.9 in November, the Iowa Department of Revenue said in a release. A late report on building permits from the federal government added 0.2 percentage points to the cooling of the economic thermometer. The report, delayed by the federal government shutdown, showed that building permits dropped to 417 in December from 1,000 in December 2017 and were 40 percent below the historical average for the month. December was just the fourth month since July 2016 that the 12-month moving average of permits has fallen below 1,000. Click here to read the full report.