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leading indicators

American

[lee-ding] / ˈli dɪŋ /

plural noun

Economics.

data that reflect current economic conditions and can suggest future developments or fluctuations in the nation's economy: issued, usually monthly, by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis in the Commerce Department.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The bank said leading indicators suggest that monthly consumer inflation “firmed” in January, led by food prices, though the underlying upward trend in inflation is limited.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 22, 2026

Not surprisingly, given that none of these theories supports a solid coincident indicator for gold’s gyrations, they all fail as leading indicators as well.

From MarketWatch • Jan. 12, 2026

Of the states that are likely to report results fairly rapidly, Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan will be seen as leading indicators.

From Salon • Nov. 5, 2024

The Reuters Tankan indexes, which can serve as leading indicators for the Bank of Japan tankan surveys, are calculated by subtracting the percentage of pessimistic respondents from optimistic ones.

From Reuters • Aug. 15, 2023

Housing detracted, on average, around 1% from real GDP growth between the second and fourth quarters of 2022, but the leading indicators of weakness showed up earlier.

From Seattle Times • Jul. 9, 2023

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023