U.S. Leading Economic Index Improves Again Jul 21, 2009

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The Conference Board's Leading Economic Index (LEI) for the U.S. increased 0.7% in June, making it the third consecutive month of increase.

The U.S. LEI peaked in July 2007, then fell steadily until it began its three consecutive months of increase in April, May, and June of 2009. With these large and widespread gains, its six-month growth has picked up to the highest rate since the first quarter of 2006.

Meanwhile, The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index (CEI), measuring current economic activity, decreased 0.2% in June and remains on a downtrend, but the pace of its decline has moderated somewhat in recent months.

All in all, the Conference Board said, the behavior of the composite indexes suggest that the recession will continue to ease and that the economy may begin to recover in the near term.

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