Business confidence indicates to what extent the mood among entrepreneurs in the Dutch private sector is positive or negative. In addition, it indicates the direction in which the Dutch economy (the gross domestic product) is expected to develop.
Target population
Total private sector with the exception of financial companies and utilities.
Statistical unit
Business establishments
Start of survey
4th quarter of 2008
Frequency
Quarterly
Publication strategy
The results are published in a StatLine table via the website of Statistics Netherlands. In addition to the indicator for the Dutch private sector as a whole, mood indicators are also being compiled for most underlying sectors of business.
How is the survey conducted?
Type of survey
The information used for Business confidence comes from the Business Survey Netherlands (COEN). The balances of three indicators per industry are corrected for seasonal influences and in construction and manufacturing industry for a structural bias. After correction, the balances are averaged in order to calculate business confidence for that industry. The business confidence of the industries is weighted on average to calculate business confidence for the entire non-financial business community.
Observation method
There is no separate observation for Business confidence; the results available in the Business Survey Netherlands (COEN) form the basis.
Respondents
Business establishments.
Sample size
The sample of the source statistics: Statistics Netherlands sends about 7,500 surveys, of which at least 5,500 are completed. In addition, several hundreds of surveys conducted by the Economic Institute for Construction (EIB) are used for data on the construction sector.
Checking and correction methods
The response provided by business establishments is evaluated on the basis of plausibility, completeness and consistency. In the case of non-response, the results are estimated.
Weighting
When calculating the results, account is taken of the share that an industry has in the added value of the Dutch private sector.
What is the quality of the results?
Data accuracy
During the survey, data are collected with respect to anticipated turnover, price and employment developments. Expectations received earlier are systematically analysed and compared to actual developments collected on the basis of other surveys. The results relate to expectations of entrepreneurs that correlate to a large extent with the data on GDP development available at a later stage.
Sequential comparability
The method followed to process sample data aims to safeguard sequential comparability of the results.
Quality strategy
Source statistics data are evaluated with respect to completeness, internal consistency and plausibility.
