Excel Economic Database: Getting the Recession Indicators

Do you know that there are four indicators that help the NBER Business Cycle Dating Committee to determine if the US economy is in recession? Yes, these variables are Industrial Production, Real Income, Employment and Real Retail Sales. Each one helps to monitor how the US economy is doing as a whole.

I remember to get these variables some years ago you needed an analyst to keep the database updated or buy an expensive specialize services, but now the Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis allows you to track these figures easily; they created an excel add-in where you can extract time series, manipulate data and build graphs. Now if you want to know how is behaving an economic indicator you can use this very useful add-in.

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Here is the link to download the add-in. 

Download Excel File