Business confidence (NBB barometer) in Belgium

Known as the 'business barometer', it is the National Bank of Belgium's (NBB) synthetic business-confidence indicator, summarising the economic-climate curve for manufacturing, services, construction and trade. It is regarded as a good leading indicator of euro-area growth.

It is built from a monthly written survey of firms across the four sectors (industry, services, construction and trade); each sector's balance is combined into an overall, seasonally adjusted synthetic curve. The 'gross' series is published unsmoothed.

Rising readings point to accelerating activity, while sustained falls tend to precede slowdowns in Belgian GDP and, given its strong historical correlation, in the euro area, making it an early reference point for the ECB.

It is a qualitative survey of business sentiment, not a measure of actual output; the 'gross' series is more volatile than the smoothed version that the NBB also publishes.