rising building permits是什么意思？

问题如下：

Current economic statistics indicating little change in services inflation, rising residential building permits, and increasing average duration of unemployment are best interpreted as:

选项：

A. conflicting evidence about the direction of the economy.

B. evidence that a cyclical upturn is expected to occur in the future.

C. evidence that a cyclical downturn is expected to occur in the future.

解释：

B is correct. Rising building permits—a leading indicator—indicate that an upturn is expected to occur or continue. Increasing average duration of unemployment— a lagging indicator—indicates that a downturn has occurred, whereas the lack of any change in services inflation—also a lagging indicator—is neither negative nor positive for the direction of the economy. Taken together, these statistics indicate that a cyclical upturn may be expected to occur.

不断上升的建筑许可这个先行指标——表明预期会出现或继续好转。失业平均持续时间的增加——这是一个滞后指标——表明衰退已经发生，而服务业通胀没有任何变化——这也是一个滞后指标——对经济方向既不消极也不积极。综上所述，这些统计数字表明可能会出现周期性的好转。