Source: Insee, monthly survey of industrial trends.

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In practice, it is mainly the evolution of balances over time that provides information on current economic dynamics. These can also be put into perspective with their long-term average level, to judge the opinion of business leaders in relation to a reference level corresponding to the historical average situation.

Figure 4 – Raw balance of opinion on expected prices in the manufacturing industry from January 2022 to October 2023 and response shares for each modality (in %)

The information contained in the various main balances of opinion from each female database survey is then summarized monthly in the form of a synthetic indicator : the business climate for INSEE or the Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for S&P. These indicators appear to be well correlated with growth in activity. In addition, to assess the health of the labor market, INSEE also constructs an employment climate based on balances of opinion relating to recent and future changes in the workforce in the various sectors surveyed.

INSEE surveys 15 times more companies than S&P
Despite many similarities, differences exist in the construction of these surveys and indicators, with potential impacts on the results.