Indicator of the economic climate in the Netherlands 2006-2016

The source adds the following information: "economic climate is the balance of positive and negative answers as a percentage of the total, per month. Economic climate is a component indicator of consumer confidence. In the consumer confidence survey approximately one thousand respondents asked two questions regarding the economic situation in general. Subsequently, the balance of positive and negative answers as a percentage of the total number of answers to each question is established. The economic climate is the arithmetic average of the two balances."

The source adds: "Economic climate is calculated as follows: the first step in calculating the index is to convert the frequency distribution of the scores for each question into a percentage distribution. Subsequently, for each question, the percentage falling into the response categories 'clearly better' and 'slightly better' (henceforth: Pp) and the percentage falling into the response categories 'slightly worse' and 'clearly worse' (henceforth: Pn) are aggregated (unweighted)."

The economic climate index is defined by the source as "the average of the balances of the positive (Pp) and negative (Pn) replies to two subquestions, expressed as a percentage."

The source adds: "The indicator ranges from -100 to +100. If the value of the indicator is zero, the number of pessimists and optimists is the same. Thus, neutral answers and the response category 'do not know' are not taken into account."