Economic Tendency Indicator

The Economic Tendency Indicator can be likened most closely to the European Commission's Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI). The Economic Tendency Indicator is based on monthly surveys of households and firms and consequently captures the sentiment among these players in the Swedish economy.

The indicator is based on the information contained in the confidence indicators for the manufacturing industry, the service sector, the building and civil engineering industry, the retail trade and consumers. The different sectors have been weighted to best reflect their impact on economic activity: manufacturing 40 per cent, services 30 per cent, construction 5 per cent, retail 5 per cent and consumers 20 per cent. The EU uses the same weights to calculate the ESI.

The Economic Tendency Indicator (like the ESI) has a mean value of 100 and a standard deviation of 10. Values over 100 indicate an economy that is stronger than normal, and values above 110 one that is much stronger than normal. Similarly, values below 100 indicate an economy that is weaker than normal, and values below 90 one that is much weaker than normal.