Five monthly confidence indicators for the sectors industry, services, retail trade, construction and consumers are produced by the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN) of the European Commission to reflect economic perceptions and expectations. The surveys are implemented in the European Union (EU) and in the candidate countries, and addressed to representatives of the industry (manufacturing), services, retail trade and construction sectors, as well as to consumers. Confidence indicators are produced as arithmetic average of the (seasonally adjusted) balances of answers to selected questions chosen from the whole set of questions in each individual survey; balances series are the difference between positive and negative answering options, measured as percentage points of total answers. Monthly confidence indicators are produced monthly at country, EU and euro area level for all sectors but financial services, which covers the EU and the euro area only. Data are seasonally adjusted (SA). For more details on the methods used by DG ECFIN in the computation of confidence indicators, please refer to the user guide of The Joint Harmonised EU Programme of Business and Consumer Surveys. Source: DG ECFIN

The economic sentiment indicator (ESI) is a composite indicator produced by the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN) of the European Commission. Its objective is to track GDP growth at Member states, EU and euro area levels. The ESI is a weighted average of the balances of replies to selected questions addressed to firms in five sectors covered by the EU Business and Consumer Surveys and to consumers. The sectors covered are industry (weight 40 %), services (30 %), consumers (20 %), retail (5 %) and construction (5 %). Balances are constructed as the difference between the percentages of respondents giving positive and negative replies. EU and euro-area aggregates are calculated on the basis of the national results and seasonally adjusted. The ESI is scaled to a long-term mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 10. Thus, values above 100 indicate above-average economic sentiment and vice versa. Data are seasonally adjusted (SA). Further details on the construction of the ESI can be found in the user guide of the Joint Harmonised EU Programme of Business and Consumer Surveys.