In late-1995, The Conference Board became the official source for both leading, lagging, and coincident indexes and a larger set of economic data known as Business Cycle Indicators. The following announcement was posted on October 31, 1995 by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) at the Department of Commerce. [BEA Home page]

BUSINESS CYCLE INDICATORS

After evaluating proposals received from several private organizations, the Department of Commerce has selected The Conference Board to take over the preparation and dissemination of the composite indexes of leading, coincident, and lagging indicators. Details of the transition have not been finalized, but the indexes will continue to be produced with no immediate changes in composition, methodology, or schedule.

As part of a reprogramming of selected resources into areas that are vital to its mission of preparing economic accounts, BEA will soon discontinue the "Business Cycle Indicators" (BCI) section of the SURVEY OF CURRENT BUSINESS, probably by the end of 1995. However, The Conference Board has indicated that it intends to begin maintaining and publishing a set of data similar to the BCI section. In addition, data for many BCI series will continue to be available from their government or private sources; a listing of these sources will be published in an upcoming SURVEY.

BEA PRESS RELEASE (Original document): http://www.bea.doc.gov:80/bea/newsrel/announce.txt

Also, the STAT-USA Newsletter ( Summer 1996) carried an interview with Michael Boldin of The Conference Board titled "Going behind the Scenes at The Conference Board" that includes some follow up information on the transfer.

BEA ANNOUNCES FIRST STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTING LONG-TERM PLAN FOR THE ECONOMIC ACCOUNTS: "LEADING INDICATORS" TO BE PHASED OUT TO HELP FUND NEEDED IMPROVEMENTS [Text version (mdrunews.txt) ] May 4, 1995

MID-DECADE STRATEGIC REVIEW BACKGROUND PAPERS RELEASED
 Text version (middecad.txt) January 11, 1994

MID-DECADE STRATEGIC REVIEW OF BEA'S ECONOMIC ACCOUNTS: AN UPDATE
 [Text version (mdr-upd.txt) ] [ PDF version (mdr-upd.pdf) ] May 1995.

Survey of Current Business articles that explain the BEA's new emphasis:

Note: These articles are on the BEA's website, and the links were last checked on November 11, 1998.
Those in PDF format require free software from Adobe Systems for viewing.