The Riksbank’s Business Survey reflects economic developments
Economic Commentaries, News Indicators from the Riksbank’s Business Survey describe the prevailing economic situation well. A new Economic Commentary shows that firms’ responses to the survey are also linked to their own business development.
Riksbank staff regularly meet representatives of Swedish companies in the Riksbank’s Business Survey to obtain a complementary picture of economic developments. Despite a relatively small sample of companies, the survey has been proved to provide a good description of economic developments in Sweden.
However, companies’ responses in the survey could be linked to macroeconomic developments due to factors other than their own business operations, such as the economic outlook portrayed in the media.
In the Economic Commentary “Learning by listening: interviews with companies reflect economic developments”, the authors study whether companies’ responses are linked to their own business development. The results reinforce the picture of companies’ responses adding new information that reflects their own situation and not just a general picture, for instance as portrayed in the media. This greatly increases the value of the Business Survey for the Riksbank. It functions as a valuable complement to other statistics used to analyse economic developments.
By Erik Frohm and Jyry Hokkanen, who work in the Monetary Policy Department.