The Conference Board Leading Economic Index® (LEI) for the US declined by 0.3% in February 2025 to 101.1 (2016=100), after a 0.2% decline in January. Overall, the LEI fell by 1.0% in the six-month period ending February 2025, less than half of its rate of decline of –2.1% over the previous six months (February–August 2024). “The US LEI fell again in February and continues to point to headwinds ahead,” said Justyna Zabinska-La Monica at The Conference Board. “Consumers’ expectations of future business conditions turned more pessimistic. That was the component that weighed down most heavily on the Index in February. Manufacturing new orders, which improved in January, retreated and were the second largest negative contributor to the Index’s monthly decline. …We currently forecast that real GDP growth in the US will slow to around 2.0% in 2025.”