A monthly indicator of GDP

Abstract

Cyclical indicators have hitherto been used as a means of describing the state of the economy on a month by month basis. However, they have proved unsatisfactory for a number of reasons and are now no longer published. This paper summarises a means of producing monthly estimates of GDP from existing monthly data. The technique can be used to extrapolate as well as to interpolate monthly data and therefore provides an indicator of the current state of the economy.