What does the UK composite leading indicator measure?

The UK composite leading indicator from the OECD tracks qualitative survey balances and financial series, designed to detect early turning points in the business cycle relative to trend GDP.

How often is UK business and consumer confidence updated?

The OECD publishes these UK confidence indicators and survey balances on a monthly basis, with historical series extending back to 1985.

Which components make up the UK confidence and leading indicators?

The dataset includes the composite leading indicator, manufacturing business confidence, consumer confidence, export order books, car registrations, short-term interest rates, and share prices.

How are the UK confidence metrics expressed?

UK confidence indicators are presented as normalised index series and as percentage balances representing the net difference between positive and negative survey responses.

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UK business and consumer confidence

Name: UK business and consumer confidence
Creator: OECD Short-Term Economic Statistics
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The OECD's harmonised soft indicators for the UK, monthly: the composite leading indicator and the components it is built from, business and consumer confidence, the balances of the consumer and manufacturing surveys behind them, and the share price index — the series economists watch for turning points before GDP confirms them.

Source: OECD Short-Term Economic StatisticsLast updated: Sep 28, 2026, 05:13Curated by Bui Thanh PhucAbout this data ↓

Indicator	08-2026	07-2026	06-2026	05-2026	04-2026	03-2026	02-2026	01-2026	12-2025	11-2025	10-2025	09-2025	08-2025	07-2025	06-2025	05-2025	04-2025	03-2025	02-2025	01-2025	12-2024	11-2024	10-2024	09-2024	08-2024	07-2024	06-2024	05-2024	04-2024	03-2024	02-2024	01-2024	12-2023	11-2023	10-2023	09-2023	08-2023
Composite leading indicator5	101.11	100.89	100.71	100.6	100.58	100.64	100.74	100.84	100.91	100.97	101.03	101.06	101.24	101.14	100.98	100.77	100.55	100.4	100.31	100.27	100.33	100.44	100.58	100.72	100.84	100.84	100.73	100.52	100.27	100.03	99.82	99.66	99.52	99.38	99.23	99.05	98.83
Component: share prices	101.3	101.17	101.06	101.01	101.01	101.06	101.13	101.16	101.15	101.09	101	100.9	100.93	100.77	100.59	100.38	100.18	100.01	99.88	99.79	99.74	99.72	99.73	99.72	99.67	99.59	99.47	99.33	99.16	99	98.85	98.74	98.64	98.55	98.5	98.51	98.57
Component: short-term interest rate	98.12	98.18	98.24	98.3	98.36	98.43	98.5	98.59	98.69	98.81	98.93	99.07	99.05	99.21	99.38	99.56	99.75	99.96	100.18	100.42	100.66	100.93	101.21	101.51	101.82	102.15	102.49	102.83	103.19	103.55	103.95	104.37	104.84	105.34	105.85	106.32	106.73
Component: production tendency survey	99.6	99.53	99.49	99.48	99.5	99.52	99.53	99.52	99.51	99.5	99.5	99.52	99.68	99.7	99.73	99.76	99.8	99.86	99.94	100.03	100.16	100.33	100.51	100.68	100.83	100.93	100.97	100.95	100.9	100.81	100.71	100.61	100.5	100.37	100.25	100.11	99.99
Component: consumer confidence survey	100.22	99.96	99.78	99.73	99.82	100.04	100.32	100.59	100.78	100.9	100.96	100.98	101.02	100.93	100.81	100.69	100.6	100.57	100.59	100.65	100.77	100.91	101.08	101.29	101.49	101.59	101.56	101.42	101.24	101.05	100.9	100.78	100.68	100.58	100.47	100.3	100.05
Component: car registrations		100.86	100.83	100.77	100.68	100.59	100.48	100.36	100.25	100.18	100.13	100.1	100.09	100.03	99.98	99.94	99.93	100.02	100.12	100.2	100.28	100.34	100.37	100.4	100.41	100.39	100.34	100.31	100.32	100.41	100.58	100.76	100.94	101.07	101.12	101.06	100.92
Business confidence	99.11	98.15	97.93	98.39	98.93	99.36	99.42	99.37	99.03	98.69	98.8	98.93	98.98	99.05	99.03	98.97	99.06	99.04	98.88	98.3	98.14	98.81	99.14	99.21	99.55	99.85	99.8	99.67	99.83	99.7	99.47	99.36	99.49	99.68	100.07	100.08	100.14
Consumer confidence	100.39	99.44	98.62	98.23	98.22	98.7	99.3	99.71	99.74	99.62	99.61	99.6	99.64	99.53	99.33	99.04	98.81	98.89	98.95	98.94	99.09	99.08	99.07	99.38	100.03	100.27	100.07	99.66	99.21	98.91	98.79	98.76	98.47	98.08	97.8	97.98	97.9
Reference series (GDP)				100.45	100.4	100.33	100.27	100.21	100.16	100.13	100.12	100.14	100.23	100.27	100.3	100.34	100.36	100.36	100.34	100.3	100.25	100.19	100.13	100.08	100.04	100	99.95	99.9	99.82	99.74	99.65	99.56	99.5	99.49	99.51	99.58	99.68
Consumer survey (OECD)2
Consumer confidence, composite	-8	-11.75	-17	-16.75	-19	-15.25	-12.5	-9.5	-11	-13.25	-11	-12.75	-10.5	-12.25	-12.25	-13.5	-17.25	-13.5	-13.25	-16.5	-12	-13	-15.25	-15.5	-7.25	-8	-10	-11.5	-13.75	-15.25	-15.75	-13.25	-16	-17.25	-23.25	-14.75	-18
Expected economic situation	-23	-28	-36	-38	-43	-37	-31	-31	-29	-32	-30	-32	-30	-29	-28	-33	-37	-29	-31	-34	-26	-26	-28	-27	-15	-11	-11	-17	-21	-23	-24	-21	-25	-26	-32	-24	-30
Manufacturing business survey (OECD)2
Manufacturing business confidence, composite	-8.21	-22.66	-22.52	-14.11	-14.16	-8.06	-13.16	-8.44	-11.9	-20.2	-12.24	-12.66	-14.21	-12	-12.19	-15.78	-11.49	-14.4	-7.16	-19.77	-27.23	-6.87	-9.91	-16.66	-9.88	-5	-7.85	-14.78	-3.82	-9.06	-10.83	-12.77	-8.57	-13.2	-1.24	-9.32	-9.55
Export order books	-0.75	-31.29	-35.63	-31.08	-14.17	-16.87	-27.56	-28.32	-27.4	-30.22	-40.44	-30.27	-33.75	-19.29	-28.63	-31.08	-42.17	-31.87	-37.56	-36.32	-37.4	-26.22	-21.44	-42.27	-22.75	-16.29	-41.63	-29.08	-24.17	-31.87	-15.56	-25.32	-23.4	-30.22	-17.44	-21.27	-18.75
Share prices (OECD)1
Share price index	164.11	161.41	157.8	157.14	158.88	155.31	159.79	153.58	148.22	146.91	144.43	140.03	139.34	136.02	133.55	131.29	125	131.35	132.11	127.37	124.77	123.71	125.36	125.35	125.21	124.43	124.58	126.24	120.96	117.96	115.83	115.31	115.47	112.85	113.45	114.88	112.87

Latest reading

Composite leading indicator stood at 101.11 in Aug 2026. That is +0.2% from Jul 2026 and −0.1% from a year earlier. The series on this page is monthly and runs from Jan 1985 to Aug 2026. Source: OECD Short-Term Economic Statistics.

Latest: 101.11; Aug 2026
vs previous period: +0.2%; Jul 2026
vs a year earlier: −0.1%

About this data

Frequently asked questions

What does the UK composite leading indicator measure?: The UK composite leading indicator from the OECD tracks qualitative survey balances and financial series, designed to detect early turning points in the business cycle relative to trend GDP.
How often is UK business and consumer confidence updated?: The OECD publishes these UK confidence indicators and survey balances on a monthly basis, with historical series extending back to 1985.
Which components make up the UK confidence and leading indicators?: The dataset includes the composite leading indicator, manufacturing business confidence, consumer confidence, export order books, car registrations, short-term interest rates, and share prices.
How are the UK confidence metrics expressed?: UK confidence indicators are presented as normalised index series and as percentage balances representing the net difference between positive and negative survey responses.