Economic indicators

What are economic indicators?

translation

• Definition

Konjukturindikatoren

• Economic statistics, which show the current economic situation and where the economy is heading

What are the types of economic indicators?

• name (translation)

• Leading Indicators (Früh-/Leitindikatoren)

  Changes before the rest of the economy starts moving in a direction (helps forecasting)

• Coincident indicators (Präsenzindikatoren)

  Changes at the same time the economy does (current state)

• Lagging indicators (Spätindikatoren)

  changes after the rest of the economy started moving (confirme what was and establish trends)

Economic indicators can have two different relationships to the economy:

a) Procyclical indicators (Prozyklische Indikatoren)

• move in the same direction as the economy

• economy is doing well = this indicator increases

• positively correlated with the state of the economy

Examples: retail sales, new orders, GDP

b) Countercyclical indicators (Antizyklische Indikatoren)

• Move in the opposite direction as the economy

• economy is doing badly = this indicator increases

Examples: unemployment, vacancies, bankruptcies

Give examples for each indicator

Leading indicators

• new orders, retail sales, business climate index, consumer price index, inventories, money supply, building permits, stock prices

Coincident indicators

• GDP, industrial production, manufacturing and trade sales, saving ratio, consumption, capacity utilization

Lagging indicators

• unemployment rate, vacancies, business spendings, GDP of one year, inflation rate, interest rate, tax revenue, VAT (value-added tax), Bankruptcies