A New Monthly Index of Real Economic Activity, 1960-2013

         
Author Name ITO Arata  (Fellow, RIETI)
Creation Date/NO. March 2015 15-P-004
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Abstract

This paper derives a new monthly index of real economic activity for Japan for the period 1960 to 2013. The index shows a similar behavior to that of the real gross domestic product (GDP). The correlation coefficient based on annual data and quarterly data is 0.94 and 0.90, respectively. Moreover, the index is strongly related to selected indicators of recession. These results imply that the new index could be used as a good measure of monthly real economic activity.