KfW-ifo SME Barometer
Construction and interpretation of the KfW-ifo SME Barometer
The KfW-ifo SME Barometer indicator family is based on a scale-of-enterprise evaluation of the ifo Business Survey, from which the well-known ifo Business Climate Index is calculated. Around 9,000 companies from the manufacturing, construction, wholesale, retail and services sectors (excluding financial services, insurance and government) are surveyed each month on their economic situation, including around 7,500 SMEs. Enterprises are generally classed as small to medium-sized if they employ a workforce of not more than 500 and record an annual turnover not exceeding EUR 50 million. For an analytically more significant evaluation, however, these quantitative limits have to be drawn more narrowly for retail trade (maximum annual turnover of EUR 12.5 million), construction (up to 200 employees) and services (maximum annual turnover of EUR 25 million). All enterprises that exceed at least one of these thresholds are classed as large-scale enterprises. The KfW-ifo SME Barometer reports the balance of the assessments of the current business situation (percentage of positive answers less percentage of negative answers), the balance of business expectations for the next six months, calculated in the same way, and the inferred mean value of these two components as the business climate. Moreover, employment expectations, domestic sales price expectations and – solely for manufacturing – export expectations are reported as balance figures, in each case with an expectations horizon of three months. All time series are seasonally and mean adjusted. The zero line therefore marks the long-term 'cycle-neutral' average since January 2005. Indicator values above (or below) zero point to an above average or favourable (below average or negative) economic situation. Due to a fundamental concept reform in April 2018, publications on the KfW-ifo SME barometer before and from this date can only be compared with each other to a limited extent.
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