Lagging Economic Indicator

lagging economic indicator

An economic or a financial variable, the movements of which tend to follow the movement of overall economic activity. Thus, a lagging economic indicator would reach a peak after a peak in economic activity and would hit bottom after a bottom in economic activity. Compare leading economic indicator.

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Lagging Economic Indicator

Any economic or financial signal that follows other economic financial signals showing the same thing. A lagging economic indicator may or may not be caused by the leading economic indicators, but it always happens afterward. For example, job growth tends to come at the end of a recession or after the recession has already ended. It is therefore considered a lagging economic indicator of economic recovery.