United Kingdom - Capacity Utilization

For the countries of Europe, the Business and Consumer Survey is conducted by DG ECFIN. It is largely qualitative. Its main questions refer to an assessment of recent trends in production, of the current levels of order books and stocks, and expectations about production, selling prices and employment. The survey also provides quarterly capacity utilization data which is not reported in conventional statistics.

Active:

• Measurements:
  • Percent share (%)
  • Balance of opinion
  • Months
• Adjustment:
  • Seasonally adjusted (SA)
  • Not seasonally adjusted (NSA)
• Native frequency: Quarterly
• Start date: As early as 1980Q1
• Geo coverage:
  • Individual country (33x I^^^)
  • Euro zone changing composition (IEUZN)
  • Euro zone fixed composition (IEZ12 to IEZ20)
  • EU fixed composition (IEU15, IEU25, IEU27A, IEU28, IEU27B)
• All concept-geo pairs exist: No

Predecessors:

• Three metrics (228 series) - 1980Q1 to 2024Q2 (no specifier)
• (199 series) - various end dates

Global concept aliases:

• CU.I^^^ for 26 countries

Six surveys are performed on a monthly basis in:

1. manufacturing
2. industry
3. construction
4. consumers
5. retail trade
6. services and financial services

Additional questions may be asked on a quarterly basis, as well as bi-annual questions about investment in the manufacturing sector.  The types of questions asked for each section are:

• Industry monthly 
• Production, employment expectations, order-book levels, stocks of finished products and selling price
• Industry quarterly
• Production capacity, order-books, new orders, export expectations, capacity utilization, competetive position and factors limiting production
• Construction monthly
• trend of activity, order books, employment expectations, proce expectations and factors limiting building activity.
• Construction quarterly
• Operating time ensured by current backlog
• Retail sales monthly
• Business situation, stocks of goods, orders placed with suppliers and firm's employment
• Services monthly
• Business climate, evolution of demand, evolution of employment and selling prices.
• Services quarterly
• Factors limiting their business
• Consumer monthly
• Financial situation, general economic situation, price trends, unemployment, major purchases and savings
• Consumer quarterly
• Intention to buy a car, purchase or build a home, home improvements.
• Financial services monthly
• Business situation, evolution of demand and employment
• Financial services quarterly
• Operating income, operating expenses, profitability of the company, capital expenditure and competitive position

The monthly confidence indicators are calculated for industry, services, construction, retail trade, consumers and financial services. The economic sentiment indicator is calculated based on certain questions from industry, services, construction, retail trade and consumers

Further reading

At the source:

• Business and consumer surveys
• Reference metadata ESMS » Business and consumer surveys (ei_bcs)
• Industry - quarterly data (ei_bsin_q_r2)
• Current level of capacity utilization in manufacturing industry (teibs070)

• Sep 2008 - Initial version.
• 31 Jul 2024, Phillip Thorne - Three metrics terminated: Properties, Further reading.