Survey indicators

The European Commission’s Business and Consumer Surveys are carried out by national institutions on behalf of the European Commission.

Harmonised questionnaires consisting of a set of mainly qualitative questions are in most cases addressed at a monthly frequency to around 67,000 firms and 24,000 consumers in the European Union.

Euro area aggregates are based on results for all euro area countries (excluding Luxembourg in the retail trade and services survey and Ireland in the consumer survey), using appropriate weights from national accounts sources. Survey results are generally presented as percentage balances, i.e. the difference between the percentages of positive and negative responses, and are seasonally adjusted by the European Commission. In general, initial results are published by the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN) on the last working day of the reporting month.