A weekly measure of future US economic growth continued to rise in the latest week while its yearly growth rate slipped further, though the data still points to continued strides in economic recovery, a research group said on Friday. The Economic Cycle Research Institute, a New York-based independent forecasting group, said its Weekly Leading Index inched higher to an 83-week high of 132.2 for the week ended January 15, from 132.1 the prior week.

The index's annualised growth rate slipped again to a 19-week low of 23.4 percent from 23.7 percent the previous week, which was revised up from an original 23.5 percent. It marked the lowest yearly growth reading since the gauge reached a record high in October.

Still, with WLI levels continuing to rise, the recovery "will continue to gain ground in the months ahead," said Lakshman Achuthan, managing director at ECRI, who has recently forecast that the index's steady growth points to improvement in the jobs market in the near term. The yearly growth rate figure sometimes moves inversely to the index level because the latter is derived from a four-week moving average, according to the group.

Copyright Reuters, 2010