ERIE – Kenneth Louie, Ph.D., director of the Economic Research Institute of Erie at Penn State Behrend, today released the latest findings of the Erie Leading Index (ELI), during the Manufacturer & Business Association’s annual Economic Forecast Briefing.
According to the report, ELI has increased for the second consecutive quarter. Although it inches slightly downward after peaking at 103.05 in July, ELI still managed to rise by a modest 0.3 percent in the third quarter after having risen by 0.6 percent in the second quarter.
“Although we would like to see a more robust advance by ELI, the recent gentle increases in the index are still to be celebrated, especially in light of the rather large number of manufacturing job losses that the Erie economy suffered at the beginning of the year,” Dr. Louie stated in the report. “The resilience of ELI, which signals turning points in the local economy, in some sense reflects Erie’s resilience in adapting to ongoing economic challenges posed by demographic, global and technological changes. ELI’s stability suggests that Erie is not likely to experience a recession in the near term.”
