A key measure of the health of the U.S. economy declined for the tenth straight month in December, pointing to a recession in the near future.
The Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators (LEI) declined one percent compared with the previous month. The prior month’s figure was revised to show a 1.1 percent decline, worse than the one percent initially reported.
The drop is steeper than expected. Analysts polled by Econoday had expected the index to fall between 0.6 percent and 0.8 percent, with the median forecast at 0.7 percent.
“The US LEI fell sharply again in December—continuing to signal recession for the US economy in the near term,” said Ataman Ozyildirim, Senior Director, Economics, at The Conference Board. “There was widespread weakness among leading indicators in December, indicating deteriorating conditions for labor markets,…
