Leading Indicators Slip 0.1% in August

The index of leading economic indicators, which is designed to forecast economic activity three to six months in advance, slipped 0.1% in August, the Conference Board said. The index had risen 0.3% in each of the previous three months. The decline suggests that rising interest rates are starting to slow the economy, as the Federal Reserve intended, said an economist at the Conference Board, a business-sponsored research group. The Fed has raised short-term interest rates twice since June to try to keep the economy from overheating and head off inflation. Fed policymakers met again Tuesday, leaving rates unchanged for the time being. Even with the decline in the index, which was not as steep as analysts expected, the economy continues to grow, the Conference Board said. The figures suggest the nation’s longest peacetime economic expansion, which began in March 1991, has enough strength to become the longest U.S. expansion ever, said Ken Goldstein, an economist for the group. The longest economic expansion in U.S. history lasted for 106 months, from February 1961 until December 1969. The current expansion will break that record if it runs through February.