Nov

Economic Indicators and What They Tell Us

Investments

The Federal Reserve Board’s decision to stop raising the federal funds rate several months ago made many ask the question – Where is the economy headed now? Are we in for a sustained period of economic growth or are we headed down the road to an economic slowdown, or even a recession?

While there is always debate among economists about where the economy is headed, there are a number of economic indicators that are utilized to justify their predictions. Here is a list of the most commonly referenced economic indicators and a description of what these indicators may suggest about the direction of the economy:

Indicator	What it tells us	Where to find it
Gross Domestic Product	Overall growth in the U.S. economy	www.bea.gov/bea/dn/home/gdp.htm
Durable Goods Orders	Future manufacturing activity	www.census.gov/indicator/www/m3/adv
Factory Orders	Manufacturing orders and sales	www.census.gov/indicator/www/m3/prel/index.htm
Business Inventories	Domestic business sales and inventories	www.census.gov/mtis/www/mtis.html
Industrial Production	Domestic industry output and available capacity	www.federalreserve.gov/releases/g17/current
ISM Manufacturing Survey	Leading indicator of manufacturing strength	www.ism.ws/ismreport/index.cfm
Index of Leading Economic Indicators	Indicator of future economic strength	www.globalindicators.org/us/latestreleases
New Housing Starts	New housing construction permits	www.census.gov/const/www/newresconstindex.html
Existing Home Sales	Sales of previously owned homes	www.realtor.org/research.nsf/pages/ehsdata
New Home Sales	Sales of new homes	www.census.gov/newhomesales
Federal Reserve Beige Book	Domestic economic strength	www.federalreserve.gov/frbindex.htm
Consumer Price Index	Price inflation in retail goods and services	www.bls.gov/cpi/
Producer Price Index	Inflation in prices paid by businesses	www.bls.gov/ppi
Employment Cost Index	Domestic labor costs	www.stats.bls.gov
Productivity and Costs	Changes in worker efficiency	www.bls.gov/lpc