The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for Australia Increased

News provided by

Apr 27, 2015, 08:00 ET

NEW YORK, April 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for Australia increased 0.5 percent in February to 104.2 (2010 = 100), following a 0.4 percent increase in January, and a 0.5 percent increase in December.

At the same time, The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index® (CEI) for Australia, a measure of current economic activity, increased 0.4 percent in February to 107.9 (2010 = 100), following a 0.1 percent increase in January, and a 0.3 percent increase in December.

The Conference Board LEI for Australia increased for the third consecutive month, after a streak of declines since August of last year, and the strengths among its components have become more widespread. As a result, the six-month growth rate of the LEI has moved into positive territory. Meanwhile, the CEI for Australia continues to improve, and its six-month growth rate is much higher than six months ago. Taken together, the recent behavior of the composite indexes suggests that the economic expansion should continue in the near term, and the pace of growth may even pick up in the coming months.

About The Conference Board Leading Economic Index^®(LEI) for Australia
The composite economic indexes are the key elements in an analytic system designed to signal peaks and troughs in the business cycle. The leading and coincident economic indexes are essentially composite averages of several individual leading or coincident indicators. They are constructed to summarize and reveal common turning point patterns in economic data in a clearer and more convincing manner than any individual component – primarily because they smooth out some of the volatility of individual components.

The seven components of The Conference Board Leading Economic Index^® for Australia include:

Yield Spread, 10 year minus Policy Rate
Share Prices, All Ordinaries
Money Supply, M3
Rural Goods Exports
Sales to Inventory Ratio
Gross Operating Surplus, Private Non-Financial Corporations
Building Approvals

For more information including full press release and technical notes:
http://www.conference-board.org/data/bcicountry.cfm?cid=7

For more information about The Conference Board global business cycle indicators:
http://www.conference-board.org/data/bci.cfm

About The Conference Board
The Conference Board is an independent business membership and research association working in the public interest. Our mission is unique: To provide the world's leading organizations with the practical knowledge they need to improve their performance and better serve society. The Conference Board is a non-advocacy, not-for-profit entity holding 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status in the United States. www.conference-board.org.

Summary Table of Composite Economic Indexes

	2014		2015				6-month
	Dec		Jan		Feb		Aug to Feb

Leading Economic Index	103.3	p	103.7	p	104.2	p
Percent Change	0.5	p	0.4	p	0.5	p	0.6
Diffusion	85.7		71.4		71.4		85.7

Coincident Economic Index	107.4	p	107.5	p	107.9	p
Percent Change	0.3	p	0.1	p	0.4	p	1.5
Diffusion	100.0		75.0		100.0		100.0

n.a. Not available p Preliminary r Revised
Indexes equal 100 in 2010
Source: The Conference Board All Rights Reserved