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.

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 employment expectations indicator (EEI) is a composite indicator produced by the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN) of the European Commission. It summarises managers’ employment plans in the four surveyed business sectors (industry, services, retail trade, construction) and thus provides a timely indication of changes in expected dependent employment at Member states, EU and euro area levels. The indicator is constructed as a weighted average of the employment expectations of managers in all four surveyed business sectors. Once the weighted average of all four standardised balance series is computed, the resulting time-series is scaled to have a long-term mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 10. Values greater than 100 indicate that managers’ employment expectations are high by historical standards, while the opposite holds true for values below 100. Assuming approximate normality, the imposed standard deviation of 10 implies that in about 68% of the cases the EEI will be within the range of 90 to 110. Data are seasonally adjusted (SA). Further details on the construction of the EEI can be found in the user guide of the Joint Harmonised EU Programme of Business and Consumer Surveys. Source: DG ECFIN

The employment expectations indicator (EEI) is a composite indicator produced by the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN) of the European Commission. It summarises managers’ employment plans in the four surveyed business sectors (industry, services, retail trade, construction) and thus provides a timely indication of changes in expected dependent employment at Member states, EU and euro area levels. The indicator is constructed as a weighted average of the employment expectations of managers in all four surveyed business sectors. Once the weighted average of all four standardised balance series is computed, the resulting time-series is scaled to have a long-term mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 10. Values greater than 100 indicate that managers’ employment expectations are high by historical standards, while the opposite holds true for values below 100. Assuming approximate normality, the imposed standard deviation of 10 implies that in about 68% of the cases the EEI will be within the range of 90 to 110. Data are seasonally adjusted (SA). Further details on the construction of the EEI can be found in the user guide of the Joint Harmonised EU Programme of Business and Consumer Surveys. Source: DG ECFIN

Business surveys provide a rapid means of compiling simple statistics with the results available before those of traditional statistical methods, and provide also information on areas not covered by quantitative statistics. Details provided by respondents are generally of very high quality since the questions related to subjects with which they are familiar, thus the past and future performance of their business is highly reliable. Similarly, consumers provide a very high quality information on their purchasing information and price trend. Source: DG ECFIN