Business tendency surveys – also called business opinion or business climate surveys – ask company managers about the current situation of their business and about their plans and expectations for the near future. Experience in OECD Member countries has shown that surveys of this type provide information that is valuable to the respondents themselves and to economic policy makers and analysts. Although they do not provide precise information on levels of output, sales, investment or employment they can be used to predict changes in these aggregates and, for that reason, they are particularly useful for analysing the business cycle.
Business Tendency Surveys: A Handbook is based on the experience gained by OECD staff in working with a wide range of countries on the implementation of harmonised business tendency surveys and the use of the results for short-term economic analysis.
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