For the third consecutive month, the Conference Board's index of leading economic indicators for Germany rose in August, the most recent month for which data are available. Including August's two-tenths percent gain, the index stands at 104.6 (1990=100).
Inflation-adjusted GDP growth, however, actually slowed to a to a 0.04% annual rate in the second quarter of this year, down from a 3% rate in the fist quarter but better than the four-tenths-percent rate of contraction during the second half of 2004.
"The slight improvement in the leading index in recent months suggests that the [German] economy should continue to grow moderately in the near term," says the Conference Board, a New York-based business research group.
