Global Leading Indicators

The Conference Board publishes leading, coincident, and lagging indexes designed to signal peaks and troughs in the business cycle for major economies around the world.

LEI for the UK Declined in March

Latest Press Release

Updated: Tuesday, May 13, 2025

For Release 9:30 AM ET, May 13, 2025

Using the Composite Indexes: The Leading Economic Index (LEI) provides an early indication of significant turning points in the business cycle and where the economy is heading in the near term. The Coincident Economic Index (CEI) provides an indication of the current state of the economy. Additional details are below.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index^® (LEI) for the United Kingdom declined by 0.4% in March 2025 to 75.1 (2016=100), after ticking down by 0.1% in February. In addition, the UK LEI contracted by 1.1% over the six-month period between September 2024 and March 2025, after declining by 1.0% over the previous six-month period.

The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index^® (CEI) for the United Kingdom inched up by 0.1% in March 2025 to 108.0 (2016=100), following a 0.3% gain in February. Overall, the CEI for the UK expanded by 1.1% over the six-month period between September 2024 and March 2025, after increasing by 1.2% over the previous six-month period, between March and September 2024.

“The UK LEI declined in March, remaining on a downward trend,” said Allen Li, Associate Economist at The Conference Board. “March’s decline in the UK LEI was driven primarily by weakness in housing sales expectations and consumer expectations. Labor market indicators also contributed negatively to the Index. Over the past six months, the majority of components in the Index were in negative territory, suggesting that headwinds to economic growth persist. However, while cooling, the 6-month growth rate of the UK LEI remained still well above its recession threshold. Overall, the LEI reading suggests that economic growth in the United Kingdom will continue to be sluggish. After growing by 1.1% in 2024, The Conference Board expects economic growth in the UK at around 1% in 2025, in a context of an uncertain business and investment environment and labor market weakness.”

The next release is scheduled for Thursday, June 12, 2025, at 9:30 A.M. ET.

The UK LEI declined in March

NOTE: The chart illustrates the so-called 3Ds—duration, depth, and diffusion—for interpreting a downward movement in the LEI. Duration refers to how long the decline has lasted. Depth denotes the size of decline. Duration and depth are measured by the rate of change of the index over the most recent six months at an annualized rate. Diffusion is a measure of how widespread the decline is among the LEI’s component indicators—on a scale of 0 to 100, a diffusion index reading below 50 indicates most components are weakening.

The 3Ds rule signals an impending recession when: 1) the six-month diffusion index lies at or below 50, shown by the black warning signal lines in the chart; and 2) the LEI’s six-month growth rate (annualized) falls below the threshold of −3.7%. The red recession signal lines indicate months when both criteria are met simultaneously—and thus that a recession is likely imminent or underway.

About The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) and Coincident Economic Index® (CEI) for the U.K.

The composite economic indexes are key elements in an analytic system designed to signal peaks and troughs in the business cycle. Comprised of multiple independent indicators, the indexes are constructed to summarize and reveal common turning points in the economy in a clearer and more convincing manner than any individual component.

The CEI reflects current economic conditions and is highly correlated with real GDP. The LEI is a predictive tool that anticipates—or “leads”—turning points in the business cycle by around seven months.

The eight components of Leading Economic Index® for the U.K. are:

• Unemployment Claimant Counts
• Weekly Working Hours
• GfK Consumer Survey: General Economic Situation: Next 12 months
• Stock prices, FTSE all share prices index
• Yield Spread
• Productivity, Whole Economy
• Total Gross Operating Surplus of Corporations
• Housing Sales Expectation for next 3 months^©

The four components of the Coincident Economic Index® for the U.K. are:

• Industrial Production
• Retail Sales
• Employment
• Real Household Disposable Income

To access data, please visit: https://data-central.conference-board.org

About The Conference Board

The Conference Board is the member-driven think tank that delivers Trusted Insights for What’s Ahead^®. Founded in 1916, we are a non-partisan, not-for-profit entity holding 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status in the United States. ConferenceBoard.org