2017.07.2010:29:00UTC+00U.S. Leading Economic Index Climbs More Than Expected In June

Pointing to continued growth in the U.S. economy, the Conference Board released a report on Thursday showing a bigger than expected increase by its index of leading economic indicators.

The Conference Board said its leading economic index climbed by 0.6 percent in June after rising by a revised 0.2 percent in May.

Economists had expected the index to rise by 0.4 percent compared to the 0.3 percent increase originally reported for the previous month.

"The U.S. LEI rose sharply in June, pointing to continued growth in the U.S. economy and perhaps even a moderate improvement in GDP growth in the second half of the year," said Ataman Ozyildirim, Director of Business Cycles and Growth Research at the Conference Board.

He added, "The broad-based gain in the U.S. LEI was led by a large contribution from housing permits, which improved after several months of weakness."

The Conference Board said the coincident economic index rose by 0.2 percent in June after climbing by 0.3 percent in June.

The lagging economic index also increased by 0.2 percent in June after inching up by 0.1 percent in the previous month.