Explanatory Notes on Main Statistical Indicators

Enterprise Prosperity Survey is also known as economic cycle survey or short-term economic observation survey. Targeting at entrepreneurs, the survey is conducted in a manner of questionnaires. It is a statistical survey to collect information on judgment of macro-economy and changes in business climate of enterprises.. To be brief, enterprise prosperity survey is to investigate entrepreneurs’ judgment and expectation on macro-economic dynamics and enterprise production and operation status. The survey covers 8 major national economic sectors, i.e. industry, construction, wholesale and retail trade, transport, storage and post, accommodation and restaurants, information transmission, software and information technology services, real estate, and social services.

Prosperity Index also called prosperity degree, is a quantitative description of qualitative indicators in enterprise prosperity survey, aiming to visualize the status of economy. The value of index ranges from 0 to 200, with 100 as the critical value. When the index is greater than 100, it indicates that the economic status is rising or improving, and in a prosperous state; when the index is 100, it shows the economic status is declining or deteriorating, and in a non-prosperous state.

Entrepreneur Confidence Index also known as Macroeconomic Climate Index, which is indexed according to the enterprise decision-makers' opinions and expectations (with choices of "optimistic", "moderate" and "non-optimistic") on the development status of the sector and its future trend. It reflects the enterprise decision-makers’ confidence about and expectation on the national macroeconomic development. It serves as the enterprise decision-makers’ feelings, experience and expectations about current macroeconomic status and its trend.

Enterprise Prosperity Index, also known as Comprehensive Business Climate Index, is indexed according to estimations and expectations of enterprise decision-makers’ opinions and expectation on the enterprise’s current and future production and operation status (choice of "good", "moderate” and "bad"). It represents the enterprise decision-makers’ comprehensive evaluation and judgment on the current situation and future trend of the enterprise production and operation.

Consumer Confidence Index is an indicator reflecting and quantifying the consumers’ evaluation on current economic situation, and their personal feeling about the economic prospects, income level, income expectation, and psychological state of consumption. It serves as a leading indicator predicting the trend of economy tendency of consumption, and an essential basis for monitoring the changes in economic cycle and other conditions as well as expectation on the economic prospects in the future. Consumer Confidence Index consists of consumer satisfaction index and consumer expectation index, and the latter one reflects consumers’ evaluation on current economic life; consumer expectation index reflects consumers’ expectation on the development and changes in the economic prospect in the future.

Indexes range from 0 to 200. 100 represents a critical point between strong and weak confidence. An index greater than 100 indicates the consumers’ confidence is strong. An index going toward 200 from 100 shows the consumers’ confidence is becoming gradually strong; in contrary, an index smaller than 100 means the consumers’ confidence is weak. When the indexes go toward 0 from 100, it means the consumers’ confidence is weakening gradually.