-UK October Conference Board LEI Falls 0.4pp To 102.0

LONDON (MNI) – The Conference Board’s Leading Economic Indicator
for the UK declined in October, with a raft of data showing the economy
getting off to a weak start to the fourth quarter.

The LEI fell 0.4 percentage points in October, after rising 0.1
points in both August and September, to stand at 102.0. Purchasing
managers activity indices and official output data have all shown
weakness in October, and the Bank of England is forecasting a small
quarterly contraction in Q4 GDP.

“The LEI for the U.K. declined in October for the first time in
four months, led by continued weakness in business confidence. The
six-month growth rate of the index has now fallen further into negative
territory and it’s becoming increasingly uncertain whether an economic
recovery will continue, even at a slow pace, in the near term,” Brian
Schaitkin, Economist for Europe with The Conference Board, said.

The LEI is designed to show the underlying trend in economic
activity, aggregating seven economic indicators and filtering out the
statistical “noise”.

–London newsroom: 4420 7862 7491 email: drobinson@marketnews.com

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