The Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index Increases in January 2021

The Conference Board, which was founded in 1916 as a non-partisan, not-for-profit think tank, today (2-22-21) released their January 2021, Leading Economic Index (LEI) for the U.S. According to the release, the LEI, which is based on ten separate components, increased 0.5% in January 2021 to a reading of 110.3 (2016=100), following a 0.4% increase in December 2020 and 0.9% increase in November 2020. In commenting on the LEI, Ataman Ozyildirim, Senior Director of Economic Research at The Conference Board said, “While the pace of increase in the U.S. LEI has slowed since mid-2020, January’s gains were broad-based and suggest economic growth should improve gradually over the first half of 2021. As the vaccination campaign against COVID-19 accelerates, labor markets and overall growth are likely to continue improving through the rest of this year as well. The Conference Board now expects the U.S. economy to expand by 4.4% in 2021, after a -3.5% contraction in 2020.”