Business and Consumer Sentiment

Indicators that survey businesses or consumers directly about their own confidence, spending intentions and near-term expectations, plus the hard activity data (such as retail sales and durable-goods orders) that sentiment surveys are watched alongside because they confirm or contradict what the surveys say. Belongs here: confidence and sentiment indexes, purchasing-manager surveys, and consumer-facing spending and orders data used as a read on near-term demand. Does not belong here: a backward-looking aggregate output measure such as GDP, which reports what already happened rather than what businesses or consumers expect next.