The Conference Board Leading Economic Index™ (LEI) for the Euro Area increased 1.8 percent in April to 93.8 (2004 = 100), following a 0.1 percent decrease in March and a 0.2 percent fall in February. All of the components made positive contributions to the index this month.

Said Jean-Claude Manini, The Conference Board Senior Economist for Europe: "The LEI for the Euro Area suggests that the bottoming process may be getting under way, but more evidence is required to determine when the economic recovery will begin. With its large increase in April, the LEI for the Euro Area has improved faster than the LEI for the United States so far this year, but from a weaker starting point. Moreover, the LEIs for Germany, France and Spain are still falling."

The Conference Board LEI for the Euro Area has increased by 2.2 percent in 2009 after falling more than 15.0 percent between June 2007 and December 2008. Meanwhile, The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index™ (CEI) for the Euro Area, a measure of current economic activity, was unchanged in April, remaining at 102.7 (2004 = 100), according to preliminary estimates, after falling 0.3 percent in both March and February. The Conference Board CEI for the Euro Area has been trending downward since February 2008.

The Conference Board LEI for the Euro Area aggregates eight economic indicators that measure activity in the Euro Area as a whole (rather than indicators of individual member countries), each of which has proven accurate on its own. Aggregating individual indicators into a composite index filters out so-called "noise" to show underlying trends more clearly.