An economic indicator is a time series, per se or in conjunction with another time series, that helps to interpret the movements related to the economy as a whole or to a part of it. Some examples are: Gross domestic product (GDP), unemployment rate, Consumer price index (CPI) and industrial production.
Economic indicators allow analysis of economic performance and predictions of future performance, and they can be classified into three categories (according to their usual timing in relation to the business cycle): leading indicators, lagging indicators, and coincident indicators.