Economic indicators that coincide with economic movements are coincident indicators. Coincident indicators by definition do not provide a forward economic view.
Excerpt from Philly Fed Report
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has released the leading indexes for the 50 states for July 2012. The indexes are a six-month forecast of the state coincident indexes (also released by the Bank). Thirty state coincident indexes are projected to grow over the next six months, while 20 are projected to decrease. For comparison purposes, the Philadelphia Fed has also developed a similar leading index for our U.S. coincident index, which is projected to grow 1.0 percent over the next six months.
For Comparison – Conference Board’s Coincident Index (red line):
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For Comparison – ECRI’s USCI (U.S. Coincident Index)
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