By Direction
There are also three terms that describe an economic indicator's direction relative to the direction of the general economy:
- Procyclical indicators move in the same direction as the general economy: they increase when the economy is doing well; decrease when it is doing badly. Gross domestic product (GDP) is a procyclic indicator.
- Countercyclical indicators move in the opposite direction to the general economy. The unemployment rate is countercyclic: it rises when the economy is deteriorating.
- Acyclical indicators are those with little or no correlation to the business cycle: they may rise or fall when the general economy is doing well, and may rise or fall when it is not doing well.
Read more about this topic: Economic Indicator
Famous quotes containing the word direction:
“The young ... look into visages dull-eyed, long-toothed, wattle-necked, and chop-fallen, something they have never been and which they cannot imagine ever being.... If it occurs to a young person, looking at us, that this is the direction in which he himself travels, how can he forgive, let alone bear the sight of, us, who constantly bring him the bad news of our own faces, bitter signposts pointing to his own destination?”
—Jessamyn West (1902–1984)
“As the unity of the modern world becomes increasingly a technological rather than a social affair, the techniques of the arts provide the most valuable means of insight into the real direction of our own collective purposes.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)