economic indicators
Financial health measures
Economic indicators are statistics that measure the health and direction of an economy.
Leading indicators like housing starts or stock prices predict future conditions; lagging indicators like unemployment rates confirm trends already underway.
Governments, investors, and businesses track indicators such as GDP, inflation, and consumer spending to guide decisions: The economic indicators suggest a recession is coming.
- inflation rateSpeed of rising costs
- cost of livingPrice of basic necessities
- unemployment ratePercentage without jobs seeking work
- job marketEmployment availability collectively
- labor forceEmployed and job-seeking population
building permits · housing starts · corporate profits · stock market · industrial production · GDP · gross domestic product · macroeconomics · electricity consumption · monetary policy · purchasing power · consumer confidence · consumer spending · interest rates · fiscal policy · index · trade balance · retail sales
- finance termsnet profit, gross profit, budget, credit, debt
- Global Economicsfree trade, trade pacts, trade blocs, international trade, global trade
- investingstocks, stock, bonds, investing, investor
- development statisticsdemographic data, birth rate, poverty rates, death rate, literacy rate
- economic dataGDP, CPI, PPI, inflation rates, inflation rate
- government statisticsGDP, unemployment rates, demographics, census reports, poverty rates
economic indicatorsgut feeling
Instinctive sense about something
intuition · anecdotal evidence · gut feelings · market sentiment · expert opinion