Statistical presentation

Data description

The purpose of the tendency survey for the construction industry is to provide a fast and up-to-date picture of conditions and expectations in the construction industry. As from the 1st quarter of 1970 Statistics Denmark has conducted a tendency survey for the construction industry. From 1970 to 1997 the tendency survey was conducted quarterly. To harmonize with the surveys conducted by other EU member states, the Danish tendency survey has been conducted monthly since January 1998. This change also implied that further questions were added to the survey. The survey is directly connected to and defined by the Business and Consumer Survey joint harmonized programme as managed by the Directorate-Generale for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission. Within same programme is also carried out monthly tendency surveys on Manufacturing Industries, Services, Retail Trade and Consumer expectations as well as the biannual survey on Manufacturing Industry Investments.

The survey is a qualitative assessment on developments over the past three months and expected developments over the next three month, based on the variables employment, sales and prices The questionaire is filled in by ticking decrease, unchanged, or increase. Furthermore is asked to the current order book level and also is asked how many months work is accounted for in the order book. Finally the respondents are also asked if there currently are any factors limiting the building activity of the respondent.

Classification system

The industries in the survey is defined by DB07 , which is the Danish industrial classification system similar to the international NACE rev. 2 system.

The division of industry groups are (DB07 groups in brackets):

41000 Construction of buildings: 411000, 412000 42000 Civil engineering: 421000,422000,429000,421100,421200,421300,422100,422200,429100,429900 43201 Electrical installation etc.: 432100,432900 432200 Plumbing, heat and air-conditioning installation: 432200 43301 Joinery installation etc.: 433100,433200,433300 43302 Painting and Glazing etc: 433410,433420,433900 439910 Bricklayers: 439910 43003 Other specialized construction activities: 431100,431200,431300,439100,439990

Sector coverage

Construction.

Statistical concepts and definitions

Business Tendency Survey: Business Tendency Survey. Compared to traditional statistical surveys, which only cover one or a few related variables from one area of the economy, business surveys collect information about a wide range of variables selected for their ability, when analysed together, to give an overall picture of a sector of the economy. The surveys include questions such as the volume of production, order books, order inflow, stocks of finished goods , exports, employment and prices. The range of information covered by business surveys also goes beyond variables normally captured by classical statistics. Qualitative information may be collected for variables, which are difficult or impossible to measure by conventional methods such as: capacity utilisation, production bottlenecks and views on the overall economic situation.

Confidence Indicator: An indicator for the present position in the business cycle. The marked economy evolves in cycles between boom, decrease, recession and upswing.

Composite Confidence Indicator: Composite indicators are calculated as the simple arithmetic average of the (seasonally adjusted if possible) balances of answers to specific questions chosen from the full set of questions in the survey. In the case of Retail Trade survey the composite indicator reflects the average of the three indicators on Sales over the past three month, the present Volume of stock and Sales expectations over the next three months.

Balance: Balances are the difference between positive and negative answering options, measured as percentage points of total answers. In particular, if a question has three alternative options, “positive” (“up”, “more”, “more than sufficient”, “good”, “too large”, “increase”, “improve”, etc.), “neutral” (“unchanged”, “as much”, “sufficient”, “satisfactory”, “adequate”, etc.) and “negative” (“down”, “less”, “not sufficient”, “too small”, “decline”, etc.), and if P, E and M (with P+E+M=100) denote the percentages of respondents having chosen respectively the option positive, neutral, and negative, the balance is calculated as B = P - M

Statistical unit

The units in the survey are enterprises defined by legal unit, which is identified by "CVR-number" from the Central Business Register.

Statistical population

The universe population includes line of businesses ranging between 41 and 43 in the Danish classification system DB07, almost identical to the international NACE rev. 2 system. The target population consists of 28535 enterprises.

Reference area

Denmark.

Time coverage

The survey has been conducted by Statistics Denmark since January 1970. Data not available in the Statbank of Statistics Denmark is available at the homepage of DG ECFIN

Base period

Not relevant for these statistics.

Unit of measure

Percentages, months and Balances.

Reference period

The reference point is the first day of the survey month. Questions are asked concerning the past three month and the coming three month.

Frequency of dissemination

The survey is published monthly - the second last working day. However results of the December survey is first published in the beginning of January.

Legal acts and other agreements

The survey is voluntary, and therefore not subject to any Danish legal act.

The survey is conducted according to agreement with the EU Commission. The legal framework of the survey is "The Joint Harmonized European Union Programme on Business and Consumer Surveys" approved by the European Commission on 12 July 2006 COM (206)379.

Cost and burden

The survey is voluntary, therefore no burden as such. If one decides to participate the questionnaire is supposed to only take a minute to complete. Joint reporting is accepted if same organization includes several companies representing unique legal units, but within same industry-class.

Comment

Information about the statistics here Short term trends. The statistics is part of the The Joint EC Business and Consumer Surveys programme managed by Directorate-Generale for Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN) please refer to their Guidelines.