A measure of future U.S. economic growth strengthened in the latest week to its highest in more than two years, while the annualized growth rate also edged higher, a research group said on Friday.

The Economic Cycle Research Institute, a New York-based independent forecasting group, said its Weekly Leading Index rose to 131.2 in the week ended July 12 from a revised 130.1 the prior week. That was originally reported as 130.3.

The index's annualized growth rate strengthened to 4.5 percent from the previous week's revised 4.3 percent, originally reported as 4.6 percent.