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Leading, composite and sentiment indicators

Review paper by UNECE

In-depth review of leading, composite and sentiment indicators
The Bureau reviewed leading, composite and sentiment indicators in January 2014, and concluded that considering the strong demand for these indicators and statistical offices increasing involvement in the area, it could be worthwhile to define national statistical offices’ role and its boundaries in this work and design alternative communication strategies for dealing with related issues. Collaboration with researchers will be important.
Outcome of the review
The Conference supported organizing seminars to discuss the role of official statistics and the challenges in producing and disseminating leading, composite and sentiment indicators. UNECE organized the first seminar on the role of national statistical offices in the production of leading, composite and sentiment indicators on 8 - 10 December 2015, in Geneva.
As a result, the CES Bureau decided to set up a Task Force on Leading, Composite and Sentiment indicators to develop recommendations on good practices with these indicators for national statistical offices. The second seminar on 6-7 July 2017 will discuss the draft recommendations.

Related initiatives
A group of Swiss universities is carrying out a project to review composite indicators and analyse their conceptual meaningfulness, statistical robustness and role in public debates. The outcome of the project will be a valuable contribution to the discussion among official statisticians.

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This page was last updated on: 16 February 2017