The Conference Board Leading Economic Index for the Euro Area Increases Again in Dec-2009
27-Jan-2010 The Conference Board Leading Economic Index™ (LEI) for the Euro Area increased 0.9 percent in December to 106.6 (2004 = 100), following a 0.6 percent increase in November and a 0.4 percent increase in October. Six of the eight components contributed positively to the index this month. However, its six-month growth rate has been slowing since September.
Said Ataman Ozyildirim, Economist at The Conference Board: "The Conference Board LEI for the Euro Area has rebounded strongly since March, but its pace has been slowing somewhat. Although economic conditions are likely to improve in the near term, the employment and consumer outlook may make the recovery weaker and more protracted."
The Conference Board LEI for the Euro Area increased by 11.4 percent during 2009, after falling by 14.6 percent between June 2007 and December 2008. Meanwhile, The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index™ (CEI) for the Euro Area, a measure of current economic activity, was unchanged in December, remaining at 101.2 (2004 = 100) according to preliminary estimates*. It decreased by 0.2 percent in November and 0.1 percent in October. The rate of decline for The Conference Board CEI for the Euro Area has slowed substantially since the first half of 2009.
The Conference Board LEI for the Euro Area aggregates eight economic indicators that measure activity in the Euro Area as a whole (rather than indicators of individual member countries), each of which has proven accurate on its own. Aggregating individual indicators into a composite index filters out so-called "noise" to show underlying trends more clearly.