US economic indicators rise for 3rd month

WASHINGTON: The index of US leading indicators rose in September for the third straight month, signalling the recovery will extend into 2011.

The 0.3% increase in the New York-based Conference Board’s gauge of the outlook for the next three to six months matched the median forecast of 57 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Another report showed the number of claims for jobless benefits fell last week to a level consistent with little improvement in the labour market.

Gains in consumer spending, business investment and exports may keep the world’s largest economy afloat even as housing remains depressed. At the same time, growth will probably not be strong enough to reduce unemployment, underscoring why some Federal Reserve policy makers have said additional stimulus may be needed.

“We’re clearly on an expansion path,” Chris Rupkey , chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ in New York, said before the report. “But we’re still short of a normal recovery. The economy is not growing fast enough to put all those millions of unemployed people back to work.”

Estimates in the Bloomberg survey ranged from gains of 0.1% to 0.6%. The Conference Board revised the gain in the August index down to 0.1% from its 0.3% previous estimate.