Economic Sentiment Indicator

This table shows the EU Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI), a composite indicator based on business and consumer surveys. Business and consumer surveys are qualitative economic surveys, intended for short-term economic analysis. While conventional econometric models of the economy perform reasonably well when the economy is on a stable growth trend, their performance is not so good for signaling changes of direction. There is an increasing interest in the use of economic surveys for predicting turning points in the economic cycle. Therefore, business and consumer surveys are a necessary complement to quantitative statistical surveys, from which they differ in method and use. The frequency, rapidity and continuous harmonization of the surveys in the framework of the Joint Harmonised EU Programme of Business and Consumer Surveys are some of their main qualities. The ESI has a monthly frequency, as do most surveys covered by this framework, and it summarizes the information included in the surveys on industry, consumers, construction and retail trade.

European Commission.

Economic Sentiment Indicator, ESI.