Statistics Korea

Survey Outline > Business Trends > Composite Economic Indexes

Economic fluctuation refers to changes in overall economic activities, such as production, consumption, employment, finance, trade, investment, etc. Composite indexes examine and predict overall direction of economic change, speed of change, economic situation and turning point in economic conditions by selecting major indices to well reflect each part of economy, statistically processing and integrating the selected indices.

Feb. 1981: Approval for the production of statistics
March 1981: The first publicity - 19 indicators (leading: 9, coincident: 5, lagging:5)
- * Jointly developed by the KDI and the National Bureau of Statistics (the former Statistics Korea) of the Economic Planning Board
March 1984: 1st revision, 22 indicators (leading: 10, coincident: 5, lagging: 7)
July 1988: 2nd revision, 21 indicators (leading: 10, coincident: 5, lagging: 6)
Sep. 1991: 3rd revision, 23 indicators (leading: 10, coincident: 8, lagging: 5)
Sep. 1993: 4th revision, 23 indicators (leading: 10, coincident: 8, lagging: 5)
1993: Change in the approval No. for the statistics production
Feb. 1997: 5th revision, 26 indicators (leading: 10, coincident: 10, lagging: 6)
Feb. 2003: 6th revision, 22 indicators (leading: 9, coincident: 7, lagging: 6)
- Modified standardization method (Absolute average → Standard deviation)
Feb. 2006: 7th revision, 24 indicators (leading: 10, coincident: 8, lagging: 6)
Feb. 2012: 8th revision, 21 indicators (leading: 9, coincident: 7, lagging: 5)
- Modified supplementary indicators on leading index (year-on-year → cyclical change)
Jun. 2017: 9the revision, 20 indicators (leading: 8, coincident: 7, lagging: 5)

Collect and process 20 indicators calculated by statistics institutions including Statistics Korea
Collect configuration index → Calculate month on month change rates → Standardize a gap of fluctuation rate → Calculate composite increase and decrease rate → Adjust increase/decrease gap and adjust GDP trend → Calculate composite index → Calculate cyclical changes

Coincident composite index (7): Index of industrial production, Index of services, Value of construction completed, Index of retail sales, Non agricultural employment size, Domestic shipment index, Imports
Leading composite index (8): Inventory cycle indicator, Consumer expectation index, Value of construction orders received, Domestic Machinery Shipment index, Export and import price index, Job search ratio, KOSPI, Term spread
Lagging composite index (5): Number of employed persons, Index of producer's inventory of finished goods, Change rate of the consumer price index, Value of consumer goods imports (real), Yields on commercial paper

Media release, KOSIS, Online publications, Monthly publication
URL: http://kosis.kr