Global businesses are feeling better at the start of this year. While it is premature to conclude that business sentiment is definitively on the mend, this improvement is encouraging. Businesses are meaningfully more upbeat in their responses to the broad questions concerning present business conditions and prospects for business through this summer. The most significant blemish in the survey is soft sales, with one-third of respondents saying they are weakening.
The Survey of Business Confidence is an exclusive survey published by Economy.com. It offers valuable insight into trends of global business confidence by surveying people across a broad spectrum of industries.
The survey of business confidence relates closely to global real GDP growth. Since the data are gathered weekly, it is one of the most timely indicators of business conditions, with at least a quarter ahead forecast of global growth. Moreover it has nearly 15 years of history, enhancing its value.
Participating is fast and easy. Each week you will receive an email notification asking you to answer 10 questions about your current business conditions. If your answers are unchanged from the previous week, simply select “my answers are the same”. To get started, create your Profile and take this week’s survey.
Each week you complete the survey you will have access to the data and charts, along with Mark Zandi's interpretation of what the results mean for the economy. Recurring survey participants also gain special access to Mark Zandi and senior members of his team in exclusive “Ask me anything” webinars.
When I created the Survey of Business Confidence in late 2002 the goal was to create a survey that was more timely and broad than any other in the marketplace. To achieve this, we decided to conduct the survey weekly and to extend participation around the globe and across many industries, surveying middle and senior-level managers who generally are attuned to how their companies are performing.
At this stage of the global economic recovery, understanding shifts in business confidence has taken on added importance. In normal times, confidence is a reflection of how the economy is faring, but in times of heightened uncertainty, it can actively shape the outlook.
