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

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Jul 10, 2014, 09:00 ET

NEW YORK, July 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for Korea declined 0.6 percent in May to 122.8 (2004 = 100), following a 1.0 percent increase in April, and a 0.8 percent increase in March.

At the same time, The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index® (CEI) for Korea, a measure of current economic activity, declined 0.5 percent in May to 117.9 (2004 = 100), following a 0.1 percent decline in April, and a 0.7 percent decline in March.

The LEI for Korea decreased in May, and as a result its six-month change has slipped into negative territory for the first time since September 2013. Meanwhile, the CEI for Korea also declined in May, and its six-month growth rate has slowed substantially compared to earlier this year. Taken together, the weakening in both the LEI and CEI and their components suggests that the rate of economic growth is unlikely to pick up 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 Inventories to Shipments
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.

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Summary Table of Composite Economic Indexes

	2014						6-month
	Mar		Apr		May		Nov to May
Leading Economic Index (LEI)	122.4	r	123.6		122.8
Percent Change	0.8	r	1.0	r	-0.6		-0.1
Diffusion	64.3	r	64.3	r	57.1		42.9

Coincident Economic Index (CEI)	118.6	p	118.5	p	117.9	p
Percent Change	-0.7	p	-0.1	p	-0.5	p	0.3	p
Diffusion	25.0		37.5		25.0		50.0

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