The index of US leading economic indicators unexpectedly declined in July, depressed by a slump in building permits that mainly reflected a proposed change in a New York tax credit.
The Conference Board’s gauge, a measure of the outlook for the next three to six months, decreased 0.2 per cent after rising 0.6 per cent in June, the New York-based group said Thursday.
The decrease was narrowly-based with only two — building permits and stock prices — of the measure’s 10 components retreating. That means growth in the last half of 2015 will depend even more on American consumers as their spending on items from cars to homes accounts for almost 70 per cent of the economy.
