For instance: macroeconomics and microeconomics indicators.

Socio-economic indicators is another group.

Asset value or cashflow oriented indicators.

I think the classification is abundant. Please find examples on my profile (the topic is multi attribute decision support). Researchgate does not allow to link publications any more. Interesting.

Types of Economic Indicators

A large part of economics has to do with numbers. In fact, many economic issues can be solved if you have the right formula and enough data. Fortunately, there is no shortage of data these days. Dozens of economic reports and indicators are published every week by government agencies and private organizations. Most of them are accessible to the general public and can be used for research purposes.

Of course, not all of this data is relevant for everyone. Depending on the relevant topic or issue, there are different indicators that should be taken into account. Nevertheless, there are three main types of economic indicators, depending on their timing: leading indicators, lagging indicators, and coincident indicators. Let’s look at them in more detail.

Leading indicators

Leading indicators signal future changes. That means, they usually change before the economy itself changes. This makes them extremely useful for short term predictions of economic developments. An example of a leading indicator is the stock market. Stock market returns usually start to decline, before the economy as a whole falls into a recession and vice versa. Other examples of leading indicators include: retail sales, the housing market, and manufacturing activity. It is important to note however, that leading indicators (not unlike all other indicators) may not always be accurate and should always be used with caution.

Lagging Indicators

Lagging indicators usually change after the economy as a whole changes. For that reason, they cannot directly be used to predict economic changes (since those have happened already). They are more useful to confirm specific patterns (e.g. economic cycles) and make further predictions from there. Arguably the most popular example of a lagging indicator is unemployment. Unemployment usually starts to increase a few quarters after the economy has started to recover from a recession. Other lagging indicators include: GDP, consumer price index (CPI), and business inventories.

Coincident Indicators

Coincident indicators occur at about the same time as the changes they signal. Therefore, they can provide valuable information about the current state of the economy. An example of a coincident indicator is personal income. If the economy is strong and business is going well, personal income rates will increase at about the same time. Other examples of coincident indicators include: interest rates and personal outlays.

Dear Syamsundar Palanisamy,

There are three types of economic indicators: Leading, Lagging and Coincident.

Leading

Leading indicators help to predict what the economy will do in the future. Leading indicators are often the most useful for an investor. An example of a leading indicator would be hours worked per employee. If the hours are rising, firms should increase hiring some point in the future.

Lagging

Lagging indicators confirm what leading indicators predict. Lagging numbers change a few months after the economy does. For example, the unemployment rate is a lagging indicator. Generally, the unemployment rate will fall after a few months of economic growth. If the leading indicator of hours worked is increasing, after a few months the lagging indicator of unemployment should fall.

Coincident

Coincident indicators mirror what the data is saying. Coincident indicators are generally what is happening right now, for example, the jobs report. If a leading indicator is predicting future job gains, a lagging indicator is saying unemployment is falling, a coincident indicator will tell you the current employment number.