Economics-For Managers

Economic indicators are key economic statistics that help in making economic forecasts. Economic indicators show how the economy is growing and indicate how it might fare in the future. In short, economic indicators are ‘economic statistics'that indicate the current level of economic growth and also the stability of the economy. The three main features of economic indicators are – how they related to the business cycle, the frequency of the data, and their timing. In relation to changes in business cycle, economic indicators can be differentiated into procyclic indicators, countercyclic indicators and acyclic indicators. The frequency with which the indicators are released is not same for all. Economic indicators may be released weekly, quarterly, half-yearly, etc. Depending upon timing, economic indicators can be classified into leading, lagging and coincident indicators. There are numerous economic statistics that indicate economic growth of a nation. This chapter explains about some of the prominent economic indicators. These economic indicators are again broadly classified into general indicators, business indicators and consumption indicators.