The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for Korea Declines

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May 17, 2012, 09:00 ET

NEW YORK, May 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for Korea declined 1.5 percent in March to 121.5 (2004 = 100), following a 2.9 percent increase in February, and a 0.2 percent increase in January.

At the same time, The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index® (CEI) for Korea, a measure of current economic activity, declined 0.6 percent in March to 116.6 (2004 = 100), following a 0.3 percent increase in February and a 0.3 percent increase in January.

The Conference Board LEI for Korea declined sharply in March following three consecutive gains, but its six-month growth rate remains in positive territory. Meanwhile, the upward trend in The Conference Board CEI for Korea was interrupted by the decline in March. However, the six-month growth rate for the index has been relatively steady since the second half of last year. Taken together, the recent behavior of the composite indexes suggests that despite the decline in the leading economic index in March, growth in economic activity is likely to remain positive in the near term.

About The Conference Board Leading Economic Index^®(LEI) for Korea

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 Korea include:

Stock Prices
Value of Machinery Orders
Letter of Credit Arrivals
Index of Shipments to Inventories
Export FOB
Yield of Government Public Bonds
Private Construction Orders

For more information including full press release and technical notes:
http://www.conference-board.org/data/bcicountry.cfm?cid=6

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
	2012			6-month
	Jan	Feb	Mar	Sep to Mar
Leading Economic index (LEI)	119.9 r	123.4 r	121.5
Percent Change	0.2 r	2.9 r	-1.5	1.3
Diffusion	64.3 r	92.9 r	28.6	57.1

Coincident Economic Index (CEI)	116.9 p	117.3 p	116.6 p
Percent Change	0.3 p	0.3 p	-0.6 p	1.3 p
Diffusion	75.0	75.0	50.0	62.5

n.a. Not available p Preliminary r Revised
Indexes equal 100 in 2004
Source: The Conference Board All Rights Reserved