Business confidence

The business confidence indicator reflects the mood among entrepreneurs in the Dutch non-financial private sector. The index is compiled for each individual sector, on the basis of survey questions about recent developments and expectations among entrepreneurs. Between sectors, the selection of these questions may differ. For example, the development of the economic climate is one of the three questions that weigh in for the services sector, but plays no role in construction and manufacturing.

Business confidence is then compiled from a weighted average of the confidence per sector. It provides an indication of the direction in which the Dutch economy is expected to develop. The questions on the basis of which business confidence is compiled are taken from the Netherlands Business Survey (COEN). This survey is conducted among companies with 5 or more employees in the non-financial private sector. These are all businesses except banks, insurance companies and pension funds.