Business and consumer surveys
Background information
Business and consumer surveys (BCS) are a joint harmonised EU programme run by the European Commission. BCS provide a comprehensive range of information on current economic activity and its perspectives based on the opinions of key economic actors, such as entrepreneurs and consumers.
The information provided is essential for economic monitoring, short-term forecasting, and economic research. Data from the surveys are also used to identify economic cycle turning points. They are a key supplement to official statistics, which are usually published later.
Information in the database
The business and consumer surveys cover 5 business sectors (construction, financial services, industry, retail trade and services) and consumers. Additionally, synthetic indicators are presented, such as confidence indicators, the economic sentiment indicator (ESI), and the employment expectations indicator (EEI).
Data are generally presented as balances between the percentage of positive and negative answers to each question. They are available as both unadjusted and seasonally adjusted data.